Indiana Jones and the Fullmetal Alchemist
by junodog
Summary: Edward and Alphonse Elric find themselves somehow transported to the time of Indiana Jones and such... mangabased
1. Chapter 1

Ah yes, another crossover of mine, this time with gasp FMA and Indiana Jones. Enjoy.

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The sun was beating down on his head. He continued to walk, hoping that he could find help if he made it to the small group of tents just ahead. He was alone. His brother had been taken by a group of people in armored cars. They hadn't taken him because his brother had sent him behind a rock at the last minute.

When he was about fifty yards away, he collapsed. He couldn't take the heat. His metal arm and leg were absorbing it at a great pace. He tried to stand back up but he couldn't. His eyes began to close as people came towards him.

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Henry Jones Jr. stood in front of his enemy, waiting for him to speak. He had been caught lurking just outside the camp, waiting for an opportunity to take back a rare artifact. This particular situation wouldn't be too hard to get out of, though. He just had to sit through a victory speech by the man standing in front of him.

Before the man got to speak, somebody came into the tent. "Sorry to interrupt, sir, but we found something interesting nearby," he said, dropping a limp body onto the ground. Indiana looked at the unconscious figure for a moment. All he could see was that whoever it was had blonde hair and was very small. Before he could see anything else, his enemy signaled to the guards. "Take Mr. Jones to his tent for now, and get a doctor. This child is very close to dying."

"Yes, sir," the soldier replied, and roughly pulled Indiana out of the tent.

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Peterson stared at the unconscious boy on the cot. He watched as a doctor pulled the boy's coat off. Something was wrong. Why was he wearing such dark clothes in a desert? His eyes narrowed as he saw what was underneath the clothes. The boy's entire right arm was covered in metal.

"Hey, what's with that arm?" he asked the doctor, who stood straight.

"Looks like it's a prosthetic limb. Very advanced, though. I've never heard of this kind of technology."

"Where would he get something like this?"

"I have no idea. Maybe some secret organization? Either way, it's taking a toll on his body in this heat. You'll have to get him out of here if you want him alive next week."

"I wonder, though, is his life worth it?"

"Well, if he's got access to this kind of technology, there's a good chance he's very important."

Peterson took another look at the unconscious boy. Something about that face bothered him. He was such a small child, and yet he looked fairly mature. He thought about the advantages of having a hostage like this one. After a moment, he left the tent to give some orders to his men. They were going to drop off a couple of prisoners.

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Indiana looked quietly at the tiny bundle on the other side of the truck. He could tell it was the person from earlier by the hair, but why was he asleep? Was he still recovering from being out in the desert for who knows how long? He glanced at the rear end of the truck, where a guard was standing. That would prevent Indy from getting the kid out very easily.

Eventually, the truck stopped, and the guard got off for a while. With almost perfect timing, the kid rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. He stared at the ceiling for a moment.

"Hey, you all right, kid?" Indy asked. The kid pulled himself into a sitting position.

"No, not really. Where am I?"

"You're on a truck heading for Peterson's house in the city. I guess he decided that you're worth something to him, because he's keeping you alive."

"Who's Peterson?" the boy asked.

"Were you out cold through everything that happened today and yesterday?"

"I guess so. The last thing I remember is collapsing near some group of tents."

"And that's where they found you."

"But I'm confused. Why-" the boy cut his question short as the guard came back in. He looked at the kid for a second before calling out to another guard.

After a moment, the guard came into the truck and signaled for the boy to stand up. With a certain amount of unease, the boy stood up and followed the guard outside, looking back once at Indiana.

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They led him to a roofless car toward the front of the line of cars and trucks. Once there, they had him sit in the back seat. He obliged, still unsure of everything around him. After a moment, he realized he was sitting next to someone.

"So, you're awake. I was wondering if you'd ever move again," the man said as he handed the boy some water. "What's your name?"

"Edward. Edward Elric. Where the hell am I?"

"I'm not going to tell you that."

"Why not?"

The car was moving again. The man was silent for a while. "That arm, and that leg, too. Nobody's seen that kind of technology. How is it that such a young child like you can get your hands on it?"

Ed was quiet. Finally, he muttered, "Say I'm small again and I swear I'll break your face."

"What was that?"

"You really want to know where this is from?" Ed asked, pointing to his arm, which had been wrapped up tightly. Ed assumed it was so that he wouldn't accidentally burn himself.

"Yes, I do."

"A friend of mine made it. What, have you never seen automail before?"

"Is that what it's called?"

"What, you've never heard of it?"

"No. You're acting like it's well known technology. Where are you from?"

Ed was quiet. He didn't trust this person. Nothing so far had put this person in a favorable light. Ed rested his cheek on his hand and looked out across the horizon. All he could see was desert.

"Hey. I asked you a question."

"I don't see how it matters."

"Excuse me?"

"For some reason, I doubt you'd be willing to let me go home, so why do you need to know?"

The man laughed. "You don't know anything about the world, do you? No matter," he continued as Ed glared at him. "You've probably been sworn to secrecy or something, right?"

"No, I just don't trust you."

"Good thinking. Now, as for where you are right now, I think you can figure that out for yourself if you've been paying attention."

Ed looked around. Many of the people were wearing what seemed to be traditional clothing. These people also had fairly dark skin. He couldn't see their eyes.

"Ishbal…?" Ed muttered. The man looked at him with some curiosity.

"Did you just say Ishbal?"

"Yeah, I did."

To Ed's surprise, the man began laughing. "Making up names, huh? You really are a kid."

"What?"

"Kid, there's no such thing as Ishbal. Maybe you're thinking of Islam?"

"What? No, I mean Ishbal."

"Okay, okay, I'll let you believe that. Now, I'll ask you one more time. Where are you from?"

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Isn't it obvious? If you, some worthless kid who doesn't know anything about the real world, can easily get access to technology like this, then I want to know where this is so readily available."

Ed snorted. "I've never heard anyone say that getting automail is easy. Do you know how long it takes for most people to have it installed?"

"No. Why don't you tell me?"

Ed looked at his arm, thinking back to what Winry had told him years ago. "Three years, usually."

"Three years?"

"Yes. That's what I said. It's painful, too."

"And obviously not very convenient, considering how close you came to dying out there."

"Well, I didn't exactly intend to end up in the middle of a freaking desert. I don't even know how I got here."

The man laughed again. "Maybe you got here magically."

Ed continued to look out at the horizon. "I don't believe in magic."


	2. Chapter 2

It was almost midnight by the time they arrived in a large town. Ed found himself being led into what looked like a mansion. He looked around as they walked down a hallway. Peterson, as the man introduced himself, walked just ahead of him. Finally, they stopped at a door and pushed Ed inside. Peterson stood behind him.

"This is where you'll stay for now. You'll have someone in the room with you at all times, so don't try anything stupid. If you do, then I'll have you sent downstairs to join Dr. Jones, and I doubt you'll like it down there."

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Next to the door stood a guard with a big gun. He looked at Ed with disinterest, as if guarding a teenager were the most boring job in the world.

Ed looked around the room. There was only one lamp, so he couldn't see very well. From what he could see, though, it was fairly big, and many of the objects looked expensive. Ed walked over to the bed, sat down, and pulled off his shoes. He noticed his foot had been wrapped up as well. Ed looked back over at the guard, who wasn't paying much attention to him, and lay down on the bed. He pulled a blanket over him and closed his eyes. His arm was beginning to cool off.

Early the next morning, Ed woke up to voices. He sat up and looked over. Peterson was talking to a guard. When he saw that Ed was awake, he walked over with a smile.

"I'm glad you're awake. Did you sleep well?"

Ed glared. "Why do you care?"

"Because I don't want whoever it is who'll come after you to think we're treating you poorly."

"So I'm a hostage."

"Something like that, unless you decide you'd rather work for me here."

"Doing what, exactly?" Ed asked.

"Nothing life threatening, I can assure you."

"Does it involve hurting or killing people?"

Peterson's face showed a lot of surprise at this, but he managed to get rid of that emotion quickly. "Possibly. It depends on what you can do. Is there something you're very good at?"

Ed thought back to the day before. The man hadn't believed him about Ishbal, or Amestris, or any other country Ed mentioned. If he didn't believe that, he probably didn't believe in alchemy, either.

"I'm good at surviving," Ed muttered.

"What do you mean by that?" Peterson asked.

"Exactly what I said. I could have died plenty of times by now, but I haven't."

"What about fighting? Do you know how to beat an enemy?"

"Yes."

"Good. Maybe I have a place for you after all."

"Who said I wanted to work for you?" Ed asked, standing up.

"You were implying it."

"There's no way in hell I'd ever do anything for you. And the only person who gives a damn about me is my brother, and he was taken away several days ago."

Peterson looked at Ed with false pity. "I'm sorry. Who took him?"

Ed averted his eyes. "Some guys with a weird symbol everywhere on their stuff."

"Weird symbol? What did it look like?"

The man gave Ed a piece of paper and Ed drew the symbol he had seen the other day. Peterson looked at it for a brief moment before turning back to Ed.

"That's the swastika. Your brother was taken by the Nazis."

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Ed blinked. "The Nazis? Who are they?"

"You don't know about the Nazi Party? They're the ones controlling Germany at the moment, under Adolf Hitler."

"Germany?"

Peterson looked dumbly at Ed. "You've never heard of Germany? Come on now, I could understand that if you were someone else, but you speak English with an American accent and you have the physical characteristics of someone with European descent. You couldn't have not heard about Germany by now."

"Well, you haven't heard any of the names I grew up knowing."

"That's because they DON'T EXIST. Here, I'll even show you a map," Peterson said as he walked to the door. He turned around when he realized Ed hadn't moved. "Well, come on."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to let you show me some map that proves that I'm from someplace that doesn't exist. I know who I am, and I know where I'm from. I'm not going to let you say it's not true."

Peterson walked back up to Ed, who stepped back, toward the window. He felt a breeze. The window was open. "Look, you're going to have to admit it sometime. Why not get it over with?"

"Excuse me?" Ed took another step back. The window was wide enough for a small person to get through… he could make it. He just needed to distract them from what he was doing. "Do you have any idea what you're telling me to do?"

"I'm telling you to give up your fantasies. Someone your age shouldn't have too much trouble with that, right?"

"They're not fantasies! This is my entire life we're talking about!" He was almost there. He took another step back, and just as Peterson was about to respond, he jumped. Luckily, he was only on the second story, so he landed with ease, and ran down the alley to a road… and right into a group of Nazis.

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He stopped running and apologized for being so clumsy. They waved him away without paying much attention to him. Ed walked away from them, looking back in confusion. Why didn't they react to him? He didn't have much time to think about it, because as he turned away from them and looked at where he was heading, he ran into a man at least twice his size. The man looked at him for a second before grabbing his arms.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked with a smug grin on his face. Ed tried to break away, but the man's grip was strong. He picked Ed up with ease and carried him back to the mansion. Peterson looked down at the tiny alchemist with disdain.

"Didn't I tell you not to do anything stupid? Now I'll have to lock you up with Mr. Jones."

Ed didn't say anything, but that was mostly because the big guy was crushing him. Peterson smirked and walked down a hallway. The big guy set Ed on his feet and grabbed his arms. He forced Ed to follow Peterson down some stairs to what looked like a dungeon. Once down there, two guards took over for the big guy, who walked back up the stairs. Before he disappeared, Ed saw a swastika on his sleeve.

They roughly pushed Ed into a cell and into a corner. One of them kept a gun pointed at Ed's head as the other placed Ed's hands in chains. They left Ed sitting there and closed the door. Ed looked at the chains with little interest. He could still bring his hands together. He grinned. He could escape easily.

It took him a moment to notice the man sitting on the other side of the cell. Ed recognized him as the man from the truck. When he noticed Ed looking at him, the man stood up and walked over. He wasn't chained at all, but he had a gash on his forehead, and one on his arm.

"So you tried to get away?" he asked, sitting next to Ed.

"Yep."

"You got off easy. I've known people who've had bones broken after trying to get out of here."

"So you've dealt with this guy before?"

"Yep."

"What does he do?"

The man sighed and looked up. "He collects rare artifacts and works for the Nazis."

Ed looked at his hands. "So I guess he's probably seen my brother."

"Your brother? Was he captured by Nazis?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Edward Elric."

"Nice to meet you, Ed. I'm Indiana Jones."

"Indiana? That's a weird name."

"It's not my real name, but that's how most people know me."

"What's your real name?"

"I'll tell you some other time. For now, we need to find a way to get out of here."

"Huh?"

"Look, I don't know about you, but they're probably going to kill me if I stay here. They might kill you too, if you end up being worthless to them."

Ed looked at the door, where some light was coming in through a small barred window. "Is this place well guarded?"

Indiana got up and looked through the bars. "Only two of them out there, but there's bound to be more spread out around here. Plus there's a lot of Nazis in town."

"How far is it to the edge of town?"

"It's two hundred feet that way," Indiana said, pointing to Ed's left. "Why?"

"Ever seen someone use alchemy?" Ed asked innocently.

"No, are you kidding me? Alchemy doesn't work."

"I figured you'd say that," Ed said as he brought his hands together. He placed each one on the chains on his wrists. There was a flash of light, and the metal dropped to the floor. Ed stood up, rubbing his left wrist. "How about now? Still think it doesn't work?"

Indiana stood gaping at the small alchemist. "How did…"

"I've been studying alchemy since I was a little kid. Can you make sure nobody's watching?"

"What are you going to do?" Indiana asked, walking to the door and looking outside.

"We're going underground." Ed clapped his hands together again and placed them on the ground. Immediately, a hole appeared. "Go."

Indiana took a moment to check on the guards again before lowering himself into the hole. Ed jumped down after making a couple of dummies. Once down there, he brought his hands together and covered the entrance to the hole.

They made their way through the tunnel, occasionally stopping as Ed lengthened it. Finally, they got to the edge of town. Ed brought his hands together one last time and placed them over his head. There was another flash. Once it died down, Ed saw light streaming in from a hole just above his head. He grinned. They were out.

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Before going back into the town, Ed used the nearby resources to disguise himself. They walked down the streets, avoiding the Nazis whenever they could. Finally, Indiana stopped in front of a building. He knocked on the door and waited for a moment before it opened. On the other side was a man with a beard and a funny hat. He looked at Indiana for a moment before smiling.

"Indy! It's good to see you again! Did you get it?" he asked, shaking Indiana's hand.

"No, but I found something else interesting," Indiana replied, gesturing to Ed. "This is Ed. Ed, this is Sallah. He's a friend of mine."

Ed shook the man's hand briefly, not wanting him to realize that something was wrong. Ed was wearing gloves again, but his arm was getting pretty hot already.

Sallah looked around before ushering the two inside. They sat down in the kitchen.

"So, what happened?" Sallah asked.

"Well, they found this kid out in the middle of nowhere, and I figured bringing him with me would be better than leaving him in their hands."

Ed blinked multiple times to keep himself awake. It was fairly warm in the room, and he was worn out from the day's events. After a while, he was overwhelmed by exhaustion and fell asleep.

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Indy looked over at Ed. "Jeez, he's asleep already?"

Sallah looked at the sleeping boy and laughed. "Well, he is just a boy."

"Yeah, but he was wide awake five minutes ago. I wonder if something's wrong with him," Indy said as he walked over to Ed. He looked at his right hand. Underneath the glove was a bandage. "Looks like he's hurt, too."

Sallah stood up and walked to Ed's other side. "Well, we shouldn't just leave him here." He picked Ed up and set him down on a couch, being careful to avoid touching his right arm. "Wow, he's heavy for his size. He must be strong."

"Well, I don't know about strong, but he definitely is powerful."

"How do you mean?"

"You're not going to believe this, but the kid's an alchemist."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. That's how we got out so quickly. He used alchemy to go underground."

They watched the unconscious teenager in silence for a while. "It's good you found him. If he were to fall into Nazi hands, the results could be disastrous."

Indy kneeled next to Ed and put a hand on his forehead. "Well, he doesn't have a fever, at least. He's probably just not used to the heat. I'll take his coat off." Indy pulled Ed into a sitting position and began pulling off the red coat. As he pulled off the right sleeve, his hand brushed against the bandage. He immediately pulled his hand back. "What the? His arm's absurdly hot."

"Just his arm?"

"Yeah, as if there's metal underneath this."

"Why would he have metal against his skin? Unless they put it there…"

Indy pulled off the other shirt the boy was wearing and swore. There were bandages going all the way from his hand to his shoulder. Indy decided not to risk taking them off and let Ed sleep.

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When Ed woke up, he was on a couch with a blanket over his chest. He looked around. He was in a small room. Indiana was sitting at his feet. Ed sat up. He was slightly embarrassed that he had fallen asleep like that.

"Hey, what happened to your arm?" Indiana asked. Ed looked down at the bandaged automail. He sighed and pulled off the bandages. "I doubt you've seen this before, but my arm and leg are automail."

Indiana stared at the metal arm. "So wait, your arm's made of metal?"

Ed nodded. "I actually lost my real arm a few years ago."

"How did you lose it?"

Ed stared at the ground. "I did something stupid."

"Great. So what are you going to do now?"

"I want to find my brother and get the hell out of here. No offense."

"Nah, none taken. I can see why you'd hate being here. As for your brother, where would he be?"

Ed began pulling on his shoes. "I'm pretty sure he was taken by Nazis."

Indiana shook his head. "Then you're going to have a hard time finding him."

"Yeah, I figured."

Indiana looked at the small alchemist. "Hey, I have to get something from Peterson. If you help me with that, I'll help you find your brother."

Ed looked at the ceiling. "Couldn't I just let myself get caught?"

"Are you kidding? They'll probably kill you!"

"Not if they find out I'm an alchemist."

"Then they'll force you to use alchemy."

"Well, what am I supposed to do then?"

"Hey, I've dealt with these guys before. I can help you get your brother out of there."

Ed looked at his arm. "I hope so."


	3. Chapter 3

Ah, finally got around to putting up the next part. Enjoy.

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The next day, they walked to the edge of town where they had come above ground. Once he was sure nobody would see them, Ed brought his hands together and retransmuted the entrance to the tunnel. They made their way back to the empty cell they had left the day before.

Ed pulled himself out of the hole and helped Indiana out. He looked around. The dummies were still in place, and he heard footsteps coming toward them. Ed quickly got rid of the dummies and the hole in the floor. They sat down, and Ed put the chains back on his wrists just as the footsteps stopped outside the door. Ed heard the door unlock, and watched as Peterson came into the room. Ed hoped very much that he wouldn't realize that Ed and Indy hadn't been there since yesterday morning.

Peterson walked straight up to the alchemist and smirked. "So, you're still here. I thought for sure there was something amiss when my guards mentioned how quiet you had been."

Ed glared at the man, hoping this wasn't an act. Peterson stood still as a guard walked up to Ed and let him out of the chains. Ed looked over at Indiana as they pulled him up and pushed him to the door. Indy pointed at a drawing in his hand. Ed knew what that meant: find the object Peterson had stolen.

They brought him through the house to a room that looked like an office. Ed was seated in a chair on the opposite side of a desk from Peterson. He looked around, trying to see if he could find what he was looking for until Peterson spoke to him.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asked.

Ed recognized that look. He was going to be in a lot of trouble very soon. "Because I'm a hostage?"

"That's part of it, yes. But, I thought you'd like to know that you might be seeing your brother very soon."

Ed raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything. It was quiet in the room for a moment, but then someone roughly pushed open the door. Ed saw a swastika on his sleeve. He walked straight past Ed to Peterson.

"I have orders to give this to you," he said, a slight accent in his voice.

"Is it about that armor?" Peterson asked.

_Armor…?_ Ed thought.

"Yes, sir. They're still wondering how a young boy's soul is able to move it around, and they were wondering if you knew anything about it."

_Young boy… That's definitely Al._ Ed tried not to react to this, but when Peterson suggested that they try to kill his brother, he couldn't help himself.

"Leave him alone!" he practically shouted as he stood up. His hands were curled into fists. Peterson blinked in surprise.

"You know about that armor?" he asked.

"Hell yeah I do, that's my little brother in there!" Ed shouted, ignoring the three guns now pointed at his head.

Peterson smirked. "So, are you the one who did that?" he asked as he walked around the desk.

Ed flinched. He hadn't meant to say that, but now that he had… "Yes," he mumbled, staring at the floor. He blinked. Barely sticking out from under the desk was the thing he was looking for. Now he just had to get it without them noticing…

"Good. I'm glad we found you. We could use a boy like you back in Germany."

"Is that where he is?" Ed asked quietly.

"Yes. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you, too," the soldier said in an evil voice. "But be careful. If you don't help us, we certainly won't help you, or your _brother._"

"Are you threatening his life?" Ed asked. "How do you plan on killing an empty suit of armor?"

"How about that blood seal? I doubt that's there for show."

Ed's eyes widened. "Don't touch that seal!" he shouted, bringing his right fist toward the man's face. He made contact, but at that instant, the other two armed men in the room brought their weapons hard into Ed's stomach and head. He collapsed on the ground, clutching his stomach. Luckily, he was right next to the object. While the two men went to check on their Nazi buddy, Ed grabbed the object and stuck it in his pocket. Once he was sure he had succeeded, he brought his left hand to the back of his head. It was wet, and when he brought it back to his face, Ed saw blood.

Peterson walked up to Ed and pushed him onto his back. Ed looked up at the four people surrounding him as he clutched his stomach.

"Knock him out," said Peterson. "Oh, and you'd probably like to bring him back to Germany with you, right?"

"Of course, but we leave tomorrow. Would you mind keeping him here until then?"

Peterson nodded. One of the two guards brought his gun down on Ed's head, and everything went black.

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Indiana waited impatiently in the cell for Ed to return. When he finally heard footsteps, he became worried. There were only two people walking down the hall. He watched as the door opened, and one of the two dumped an unconscious Ed onto the floor.

"Shouldn't we chain him up again?" one asked.

"Nah, he can't do much if he's unconscious. Besides, it's not like they can dig a tunnel and escape," the other one said as they left the room. Once Indiana was sure they were gone, he went to Ed's side. There was blood on his face, and in his hair. Indy checked the wounds to see how bad they were before pulling the bandages off of Ed's arm. They weren't incredibly clean, but they would have to do for the moment.

Ed had been smart when he had covered the hole. The cover moved easily when Indiana pushed at it, and he gently lowered Ed into the darkness. He checked for the guards, and when he was sure they wouldn't look inside for a while, he lowered himself down and covered the hole again.

He pulled Ed down the tunnel, hoping that he had gotten what they had come for. After a while, Ed groaned. Indy whispered his name to see if he was awake, but there was no response. Finally, he got to the end of the tunnel, where Sallah was waiting. Indy gave him the unconscious teenager and pulled himself up and out. They covered the hole and made their way through town to Sallah's home.

"Did he find it?" Sallah asked once they had set Ed down on the couch and fixed the bandages on his head.

"I don't have a clue. We'll just have to ask him when he wakes up."

They didn't have to wait long. About an hour after getting to the house, Ed woke up with a start. He sat up rather quickly, which seemed to cause a lot of pain, because he grimaced and clutched his stomach. Indy looked at him with concern.

"You okay, kid?"

"What do you think?" Ed shot back, glaring at Indy.

"Whoa, whoa, sorry I asked. Did you have any luck?"

Ed gave Indy a very confused look for a moment. Then it seemed to dawn on him. "Oh, yeah, that…" He reached into his pants pocked and pulled it out. He gave it to Indy before reaching up to his head. "And I found out where my brother is, too."

"That's good," Indy muttered as he looked at the ancient artifact in his hands. It was incredible. Finally, he was convinced that it was the real thing and put it aside. "Where is he?"

"They said he's in Germany. Don't know where exactly, though. They were going to bring me there tomorrow."

"Are you sure it was your brother they were talking about?"

"No doubt about it. He's a little… unusual for a fourteen-year-old."

"Unusual? In what way?"

Ed paused for a moment. "You'll see."

Indiana looked at Ed's face. He could tell Ed didn't want to go into detail, so he didn't push it. Instead, he stood up.

"Well, we should probably get going, huh?"

"Huh? Go where?" Ed asked.

"To Europe. Not straight into Germany, but we need to get out of here, at least, and the sooner, the better."

"Oh," Ed replied. "But wait, won't it be a problem if I don't have an ID?"

"Well, how good are you at acting?"

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That evening, three people arrived at a city fifty miles away. They made their way through the city to the docks, where a small blonde boy searched frantically for a lost passport in front of the crew of a passenger ship.

"I know I had it before!" he cried out in frustration. His guardian, a tall man in his forties, tried to calm him down, but to no avail. The kid was very upset.

Finally, the person in charge of customs walked up to the panicking youngster. "Don't worry, we'll still let you leave the country," he said in a calm voice. The boy looked up, tears beginning to show in his eyes. "I've never seen anyone so upset about losing their passport."

The boy wiped his eyes dry with his sleeve. "Well, I had other important things with it, too."

"Oh, I see. Well, let me write up some temporary papers for you, and you'll be all set."

"Thank you," the boy mumbled.

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Once on the ship, Ed stared at the papers. "Wow, they really make it hard for people to go from country from country, huh?"

"What, haven't you left your home country before?"

"Just once, and that wasn't exactly the most legal journey."

"Well, don't worry about it now. We're on our way to Italy."

"Italy?"

"Oh, yeah, you ended up here by accident, didn't you? Well, you'll probably like Italy. My dad's there, too. He's doing some research in Venice."

Ed nodded and looked out to sea. He didn't care about where he was going. He just wanted to find his brother.

---------------

It was a few days before they arrived in Venice. When they finally arrived, Ed realized just how much he loved solid ground, even if there were waterways everywhere… He walked behind Indiana through the city, looking up at the buildings. It was definitely an impressive city.

After a while, they came to a hotel. Indiana checked in and led Ed upstairs to a small room with a balcony. "Wait here," he said as he walked toward the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ed asked.

"To find my dad," Indy replied. "He's probably in at the library, and I doubt you're in the mood to walk through the city, right?"

Ed nodded. He was pretty tired, and his head hurt. When Indy left the room, Ed went into the bathroom and began pulling off the bandages. One of the gashes had almost completely healed, but the other one was being painfully slow. Ed was pretty sure it had something to do with the sleeping arrangements on the ship. Every day he had hit his head on a metal bar at least two times. He sighed as he cleaned off the bandages.

Once he had redone everything, Ed went out to the balcony and looked at the canal below. People were going by on small boats, looking at the buildings above. Ed yawned and looked down the canal toward the sea. In the distance, he saw a familiar face boarding a boat. Once he was sure about the man's identity, Ed went inside and shut the doors behind him. He closed the curtains and collapsed on the bed with a groan. This was the last thing he needed.

He thought about it for a moment before opening the curtains an inch. Peterson was sitting in a boat that was gliding down the canal past the balcony. Ed watched as it continued down the canal, finally stopping by a road. Ed's mind was racing. What was Peterson doing in Venice? Then he remembered what Peterson had said during the car ride to the person driving the car, when Ed had been feigning sleep.

"_Are you sure that Venice is where you want to have your vacation?"_

"_Yes, it is. It'll be nice to take a break somewhere that isn't a desert."_

Ed breathed a sigh of relief._ It's just a coincidence_, he thought. He closed the curtains again and walked back to his bed, but something on the floor caught his attention. He picked it up and looked at it. He smiled evilly. This was perfect.

--------------

The two Joneses walked up the stairs to Indiana's hotel room. They talked for a while, mostly about Ed.

"Seriously, Dad, the kid's a genius. When we were coming over here, I showed him one of those old textbooks you sent me, and he understood it all after reading it once."

"Really? Those alchemy textbooks? Even I have troubles understanding them."

"Well, he got it in less than a day. He said it was slightly different than what he was used to, but that didn't seem to affect him at all."

"How old is he?"

"Don't know, but I'd say he's around twelve or thirteen."

They entered the room quietly, in case Ed was asleep. He was. Indiana sighed and walked over to the bed. It looked like Ed had changed the bandages on his head. Henry Jones looked at the sleeping boy with some interest.

"Well, I guess I'll just come back later this evening."

"Where are you staying?"

"Downstairs."

"Oh. That's convenient."

They stood quietly in the room for another moment before Henry left. "I'm in room 102. Why don't you come down when he wakes up? We can go out for dinner."

----------------

_The sun was beating down on his face. He looked around to see where his brother was, but he was alone. He walked forward, hoping he could see his brother, but he didn't see anything. He was alone._

_Eventually he looked back. Everything behind him was dark. He heard a voice calling him from the darkness, softly calling his name. He walked back into the darkness, looking around for the source of the voice. Finally, he stopped. Right in front of him was a creature he recognized. It looked at him with curiosity, gently calling his name._

"_Edward."_

"_Nina…" he muttered, staring at the chimera girl._

"_Edward."_

"_I'm sorry."_

"_Edward. Ed."_

"_No, I can't do anything for you now," Ed muttered._

"Ed. ED!"

Ed woke up with a start. Indiana was standing right next to him. He watched as Ed sat up. "Man, I feel sorry for whoever it is who usually has to take care of you."

"That would be my brother," Ed muttered, looking down at his hands.

"Oh. Well, come on. We're going out for dinner with my dad."

Ed pulled his pants on and began looking for his shoes. After a while, he realized they were nowhere to be seen. He looked at Indy.

"Where are my shoes?"

"How should I know? You need to pay attention to where you leave your things," Indy replied with a smirk. Ed ignored him and continued looking for his shoes. He found them sitting in the bathroom next to his coat.

"Found them," he called out to Indy. He pulled them on, pulled on his coat, and followed the archaeologist out into the hallway. "So, what does your dad do?"

"He's a history professor."

Ed stuck his hand in his pocket. He felt his silver watch and pulled it out. He was rather amazed he still had it.

Indy looked with interest at the watch in Ed's hand. "Where'd you get that?"

"What, this? I got it when I joined the military of my country. As a state alchemist."

"Can I see it?"

"Sure," Ed replied, taking the chain off of his belt and handing it to Indiana. The older man looked at the watch with interest.

"So, they give you one of these when you join up?"

"Yeah, as proof of your identity as a state alchemist."

"I guess something like this would be hard to fake. It's a watch, right?"

"Mm-hmm. Doesn't open, though."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want people looking inside. Besides, it's not like anyone cares about the inside."

"Except for you."

Ed looked in confusion at Indiana and tripped on the stairs. He landed with a heavy thud on the landing just below him. "OW!"

After a moment, he sat up, rubbing his head. He'd hit it right where he'd been wounded. Indiana held out a hand and pulled Ed to his feet. Once he was sure Ed would be all right, he laughed. "You don't know how to walk down stairs, do you?" Ed had tripped twice during the ship ride over.

"Shut up. That one was your fault."

"Just because you can't double task doesn't mean you can blame that on me."

"Yes I can," Ed replied as he continued walking down the stairs.

"Hey, wait."

Ed stopped and looked back. "What?"

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen. Why?"

"Wait, you're fifteen?"

"Yeah, got a problem with that?"

"No, it's just, I thought you were younger."

"Because of my height?" Ed said, anger creeping into his voice.

"Well, yeah. Most fifteen-year-olds are at least five feet tall, but y-" Indy had to cut his sentence short and duck to avoid a fist in his face. "Whoa, what's with you?"

"I'M NOT LITTLE!" Ed shouted, attracting attention from some of the other people in the hotel.

"Okay, okay, calm down. You shouldn't shout in a hotel, you know."

"And you shouldn't make comments about people's heights," Ed replied, but he was quiet after that.

-----------

Why did I choose Venice? Because it's one of the only cities I know of in Italy, and it's pretty. Will the events in this one have any significance later on? Yes. Do I like crack in a pie? Obviously.


	4. Chapter 4

Heh heh heh. This part amuses me.

------------

Ed stood in the background as Indiana knocked on the door. He was thinking about his dream. For some reason, he couldn't get it out of his head. Why was that haunting him so much? He knew he couldn't have done anything about it… Right now he needed to concentrate on finding Alphonse.

Suddenly, he remembered what he'd seen just before he had fallen asleep. He opened his mouth to tell Indy, but just then, the door opened. An old man stood on the other side of it.

"Hey, Dad, are you ready?" Indiana asked.

"Yes, just let me grab my coat," the man replied, as he closed the door. Ed took this opportunity to tell Indy what he had seen. The archaeologist listened quietly. He didn't seem surprised by what Ed said. As Ed finished, Henry Jones Sr. opened the door again. "Well, shall we go?" He walked past the two toward the front door of the hotel, but stopped before he got there. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. You must be Edward, right? I'm Professor Henry Jones."

Ed took Mr. Jones's hand after a moment's hesitation. He wasn't sure if Indy had said anything about his arm, and he wasn't in the mood to explain it. Luckily, the old man was either completely oblivious to the metal, or he wasn't curious enough to ask about it. They walked out into the street, the elder of the Joneses leading the way.

Indiana and Edward walked a few feet behind Indy's father.

"Are you sure it was him?" Indy asked.

"Positive."

"And he's just on vacation."

"That's what he said before we got to that town."

"I guess we'll just have to be careful, then. Would you care if we dyed your hair black and cut it?"

"I don't see why you have to _cut_ it, but I'm fine with dying it."

"Good. We'll do that tomorrow morning."

"Do what tomorrow morning?" Henry Sr. asked.

"Ed's going to get a haircut," his son replied.

"Excuse me? There's no way I'm cutting my hair!"

"Why not?"

"It's part of my identity! How would you like it if someone stole your hat?" Ed asked, pointing at the dirty fedora on Indiana's head.

"Hey, hair grows back."

"So? It's been growing out for four years! I'm not gonna cut it now!"

"Okay, fine, we won't cut it. Sheesh."

----------------

In the middle of Germany, a few miles away from a big city, stood a large castle with many cars parked in the courtyard. Inside the castle were a great amount of German soldiers. One of them stood in the dungeon, just outside a seemingly empty cell. Inside the cell was an empty suit of armor.

The guard yawned and began pacing the hall to keep himself awake. After a while, he stopped and stood back by the cell.

"You know, you could have easily escaped by now," he called into the cell. "You don't have to stay here."

The armor picked up its head and looked at the guard. "I know."

"Then why are you staying?"

"Didn't you say they had my brother somewhere?"

"Yes, I did, but I heard he got away."

"But he knows I'm here, right?"

"Yeah, but are you just going to wait around for your brother to come to you?"

"Well, what am I supposed to do? If I leave and he comes here looking for me…"

"Then they'll only be able to threaten him with his own life, and if they want him to ever work for them, they won't kill him."

"But they can hurt him. Besides, if I leave now, I might never be able to find him."

The soldier smiled. "I see. Well, you do know that I'm willing to help you, right?"

"Won't that get you in trouble, though?"

He laughed. "There's no way they'd ever suspect me of helping a prisoner. I'm much too loyal to ever do something so foolish."

---------------

Ed barely spoke through dinner. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't say what it was exactly. He tried to convince himself that he was just worried about his brother, but it didn't work. He felt as if there was something else, some bigger issue involved in all of this, but what? After a while, he gave up on trying to come up with an answer and went back to eating his food.

After a while, Indiana set down his fork and looked at Ed. "Hey, your last name's Elric, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I've never heard of that before," Henry commented. "Are there many Elrics where you're from?"

Ed shook his head. "Nah, right now it's just me and my brother."

"What about your parents?"

"I don't have parents anymore, but it comes from my mom."

"What happened to them, if you don't mind my asking?"

Ed poked at his food for a moment. "My dad left us when we were very little, and my mom got sick and died not too long after."

"Where did your dad go?"

"No idea. We haven't heard from him since he left. Nobody has."

"So he just disappeared?"

"Yep. He's been gone for around ten years now."

Ed noticed the two exchange glances. He was hoping they weren't going to go on a pity fest. That was the last thing he needed. He didn't need to worry, though. They didn't say anything about it.

-----------------

The next day, Indiana woke up after Ed did. He saw the kid standing on the balcony, looking at the canal with blank eyes. Indy stood quietly behind Ed for a moment before Ed spoke.

"You're named after your dad, aren't you?" he asked.

Indy started. "How did you know?"

Ed turned his head toward Indy. "Well, for one, he always calls you junior."

"You're pretty observant, kid," Indy said, reaching to pat Ed on the shoulder. Ed casually stepped out of reach and pulled something out of his pocket. "Two, I read it in here," he said, waving a passport in Indy's face.

"Hey, how'd you get that?" Indy asked, snatching it out of the boy's hand.

"I found it on the floor yesterday. You need to pay attention to where you leave your things," Ed said with a smug grin on his face.

"Hey, how'd you like to go swimming?" Indy asked, giving Ed a playful shove.

"Ha ha, funny. I want to go swimming just as much as you want to be accused of drowning a little boy," Ed replied, pointing to his arm.

"Oh, can't swim, huh?"

"Nope. Way to figure that one out."

Indy walked back inside and got changed. "Well, you ready for a haircut?"

Ed scowled. "I already said I'm not gonna do that."

"Right, right. Let's go."

---------------

Ed walked slowly behind Indy, constantly putting a hand up to his head. Despite his protests, the barber had cut off a few inches of his hair, making it impossible for Ed to braid it. The guy had also messed up the dye job, leaving Ed with brown hair and blonde highlights. He felt like an idiot.

Every time Indy looked back at the tiny alchemist, he got a death glare in return. If he hadn't been so afraid of Ed, he probably would have laughed. Ed sighed. He hoped desperately that his hair would grow long enough for a braid before he got home, but what were the odds of that?

"Hey, look on the bright side," Indy said. "I think this is a better disguise than dying it black."

"Only because it makes me look like a girl," Ed replied.

"You don't look like a girl."

"Yes I do. Did you see that guy staring at you earlier? People only look at someone like you that way when they think you're a pedophile, and you don't seem like the type of person who'd go out with guys."

Indy stared at Ed for a minute. "I'm glad you think that way," he muttered sarcastically. Ed smirked until Indy continued. "I'll just tell people that you're my daughter, if you're so worried about that."

"And then I'll tell everyone you cheated on my mom," Ed replied after a moment. "I'm sure they'd like to hear that."

"Yeah, and who'd believe you?"

"Girls in such a tragic situation like mine are _always_ trusted, _Dad_."

"Oh, so you want people to think I'm your father?"

"Yeah, and then I'll tell them how you dress up your son as a girl because you're a sick-minded freak."

This continued all the way to the hotel, where Ed spent three hours staring into the mirror in the bathroom. Finally, he decided to admit it was an all right change. He could live with it for a while.

Once he had come to terms with his new hair, Ed went back into the room and sat on his bed. "What now?" he asked.

Indy, who had been reading a book for the past three hours, sighed and put it down on the nightstand. "Well, let's try to figure this out. Your brother's somewhere in Germany, right?"

"Yeah, but they didn't say where."

"What does he look like?"

Ed thought about it for a while. After a moment, he got a pen and a piece of paper, and began drawing the armor that was his little brother. Indiana looked at the pathetic drawing for a moment.

"You know, they'll probably make him take that off."

"No, they can't do that."

"Why not?"

Ed sighed. "He doesn't have a body. It's just his soul in there."

Indiana stared at Ed for a moment. Then he laughed. "Come on, you don't think I'll believe that, do you…?" he trailed off as he saw the serious look on Ed's face. "Never mind. Well, if we're looking for a suit of armor, it's going to be hard. There's a fair amount of that all over Europe."

"Yeah, but how much of it looks like this and can move?"

"Good point. Well, they'd probably take him somewhere where he wouldn't stick out too much…"

"Which means he'll be somewhere where there's a lot of armor…"

"Which would be a castle."

"Right."

"…Which doesn't help us much."

They both sighed. Ed fell on his back on the bed. "Wouldn't there be a lot of people around him, though? I mean they probably want to know how to bond a soul…"

"True. So I guess we're looking for a castle with people stationed there."

"How many of those are there?"

"A decent amount, but there's less of those than uninhabited castles. It's probably safe to say he'd be at one of the more important bases, though."

"Why's that?"

"Think about it. A soul in a suit of armor? Wouldn't that be incredibly convenient for fighting wars?"

"That's right. If they figure out how to do it, they'll have an immortal army." Ed rolled onto his side, his back to Indiana. "And I'm the one who'll be responsible."


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5 is up! Poor Ed, he looks like a girly… XD

-----------

Indiana drove down a worrisome mountain road toward a castle in the distance. Through much information gathering and spying, Ed had managed to narrow the choices down to this one and two others. As they got close, Indiana could see Ed's body tense up. He stopped the car next to some trees so that they wouldn't be seen from the castle.

"Okay, do you have a plan?" he asked Ed.

"Um… sort of…"

"You don't have one, do you?"

"No, I have one, but…"

"What's wrong with it?"

Ed sighed. "I really hope Al isn't here. If he is, and he sees me like that, I'll never live it down…"

"Come on, what's your plan?"

Moments later, Ed walked through the rain toward the castle. He had an absurd amount of dirt on his face, and he was wearing a makeshift skirt over his pants. His top and gloves had been altered to give him a more feminine appearance, and his hair was pulled back into a small bun.

He walked up to the guards who were standing in front of the entrance. Making his voice sound as high as possible without being blatantly obvious, he spoke to them with an accent that he hoped wouldn't raise questions.

"Um, excuse me…" he began, keeping his eyes down.

"What are you doing here?" one of the guards asked.

"Well, I was out for a drive, and well, my car broke down…"

"Where is it?" the other guard asked. Ed pointed to the trees where the car was hidden.

"It's over there."

"And what's a girl like you doing driving out here on your own during a thunderstorm?"

Ed tried not to laugh as he spoke again. "W-well, i-it's just that… I… I… My father hates me!" he sobbed, covering his face in his hands. The guards groaned audibly. Obviously they weren't in the mood to deal with a basket case.

One of them looked over at where Ed had pointed. "Is there someone who can pick you up?"

Ed shook his head. "Nobody."

The guards exchanged glances. Eventually, one of them relented. "I'll go take a look at it. You stay here."

Ed nodded. "Thank you very much," he said quietly, looking at the ground. He watched as the man walked off toward the trees, and hoped that Indy would be able to do his part. The other guard stood quietly at his post.

"So, why are you speaking English?" he asked after a moment.

Ed thought about it for a moment. "Because my father made me learn it. He's pushed it so much that I don't remember German anymore."

"I see," said the guard. His tone of voice told Ed the man didn't believe him. He looked back at the trees, wanting desperately to get away from the guard. After a moment, he heard a gunshot from the trees. He hadn't been expecting that, so the look of surprise on his face was a convincing one. The other guard ran over to the trees, leaving Ed alone in front of the gate.

After a moment, they came back, pulling an unconscious Indiana behind them. Ed stared at them for a moment, trying to figure out what he needed to do now. He decided to continue his act.

One of the guards walked right up to Ed, looking at him with fierce eyes. "So, why was that man hanging out by your car?"

Ed looked back down at Indy. "I… I don't know."

"I'm sure you don't. Come on, we're taking you inside."

"But I'm serious! I have no idea–"

"Be quiet!" one of them shouted. Ed shut his mouth. They opened the gate and pointed inside. "Get in."

Ed walked cautiously through the gates. He looked around, trying to figure out what to do. This was definitely an unexpected and unwelcome turn of events. His mind raced to find a solution as the guard pushed him inside the actual castle.

He was led into what looked like a dining room. There were two people at the far end of the table leaning over some papers. They looked up when they saw Ed and the guard.

Ed stood quietly with a gun at his back as the three men spoke in German. Eventually, they stopped talking and had Ed sit down. One of the two, who seemed to be a very high-ranking officer, put his hand under Ed's chin and looked closely at Ed's face.

"You're very muddy," he said.

"I fell," Ed replied, trying his hardest to avoid the man's gaze.

"What is your name?"

Ed struggled to think of a good female name, but they were all escaping him, until he remembered a very close childhood friend…

"Winry," he said.

"Winry?" the man echoed. "I see. So tell me, Winry, why exactly was Dr. Jones waiting for one of the guards to arrive at your car?"

Ed raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Who?"

"Don't try to lie to me, girl. You were hoping to sneak in here, weren't you? Why?"

"What are you talking about?" Ed asked.

The man slapped him in the face. "Do you think we're fools? Answer the question!"

"I don't know!" Ed cried before being slapped again. The man stood in front of him, looking into his eyes. Eventually he gave up and spoke to his colleague. They turned back to him after a moment.

"Stand up," one said. Ed stood up. The man led him through the castle toward the dungeon. Once there, he roughly pushed Ed into an empty cell and walked out. Ed looked around the dungeon. Indy, he knew, was in the cell next to him, and there was a suit of armor in the cell across from him. Ed checked to see if there were any guards before calling out his brother's name.

"Al? Is that you?" he called out, desperately hoping that it was indeed his brother.

"Ed?" the armor replied, standing up. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, obviously! How long have you been here?"

"Since they took me away. Brother, why…"

"Don't ask."

"But your hair!"

"I know. Look, we need to get out of here."

"I'm ready whenever you are."

Ed clapped his hands together, but he didn't place them on the bars. "Wait. We need to wait for him to wake up," Ed said, pointing to where Indiana was.

"I can carry him," Al replied.

"Yeah, but we need him to be awake when we get to the car. I have no idea how the cars here work."

"Well, brother, why don't you try waking him up?"

Ed nodded, and transmuted the bars just enough so that he could squeeze through. He checked for guards again before going to Indy's cell. He shook Indy for a while before noticing a nearby bucket of water. He dumped it on Indy's head, and the archaeologist finally woke up.

"Come on, we're getting out of here," Ed said. As Indy stood up, Ed heard a noise at the door. He quickly squeezed through the bars of his own cell and retransmuted them, just as the door opened and several soldiers walked in. They stopped at Al's cell. Ed watched them, trying to figure out what they were going to do. When it finally dawned on him, he tried to catch his brother's eye.

Once his brother had acknowledged him, Ed clapped his hands together and placed them on the ground. A wall of stone surrounded the group. Ed transmuted the bars of his cell, did the same for Indy, and was about to free his brother when the door opened again.

-------------

"Well, well, look at this. It seems Dr. Jones is trying to escape with his latest girlfriend," Peterson said, smirking at the two from behind a wall of well-armed soldiers.

"EXCUSE ME?!?!?" Ed shouted. He brought his hands together and placed them on the floor. Just before the soldiers could fire at the two, a wall blocked their way. Ed used the temporary protection of the wall to break into his brother's cell. There was a window just out of reach. Al pushed his brother up to the window, and Ed transmuted it so that they could get out. He transmuted a few more walls behind them before turning his attention to their current situation. They were alone for the moment, but he could hear soldiers coming.

They ran across the grounds to the outer wall. Ed transmuted a door and ushered the other two through just as some people appeared. They saw Ed and pulled out their guns, shouting at him. Ed ran through the door and transmuted it back into a wall, barely avoiding several bullets.

He leaned against the wall for a moment, catching his breath. He didn't have very long, though. Indiana grabbed his arm and they ran for a ditch, dodging bullets all the way.

Once under the cover of the ditch, Ed pulled the skirt off and undid his hair. "Figures something would go wrong," he muttered darkly before turning his attention to the others. Al had several bullet holes in his armor, and Indy's arm was bleeding.

"What now?" Ed asked, hoping somebody had a solution.

"I guess we need to find a way out of here. I doubt we'll be able to use the car, though."

"Should we go underground again?" Ed asked.

"Nah, that wouldn't work, either. We'll just have to run for it."

Ed sighed and stood up. "I guess so," he said. "Which way?"

"Toward the road, I guess. They'll be expecting us to go the other way."

Ed nodded, and they began running down the ditch toward the road. When they were a few yards away, Ed felt a searing pain in his arm. He looked down to see blood oozing through the fabric of his sleeve, and a bullet-sized hole in his arm. He looked around, trying to see where it had come from, and saw a group of people standing on either side of the ditch ahead of them. They all had guns pointed at the three escapees.

Ed stopped running. Indy and Al did too, and the three of them surrendered. The soldiers jumped into the ditch and surrounded their prisoners. Two of them grabbed Ed's arms and pulled them behind his back. The one who had a hold of his right arm looked bewildered for a moment, but his face immediately became emotionless. From how the others were reacting, Ed figured he was the only one who had seen the bewilderment of the man.

Ed wanted desperately to pull his right arm away to stop the bleeding, but if he struggled, he'd be putting his life in danger, so he left it the way it was. He was still out of breath from running.

They waited in the ditch for the commanding officer to make his way over. He smirked at Ed before speaking. "That's quite an interesting mess you made back there," he said. Ed glared at the man. He was beginning to feel woozy from the loss of blood. After a moment, the man spoke again. "Maybe you'd like to share your knowledge?"

"There's no way in hell I'd ever help you people," Ed replied.

"I see. You two," the man gestured to the two holding onto Ed. "Take her back to the castle and kill her."

"Now, now, I don't see the need to go that far," Peterson called out from above their heads. "Maybe she just needs some more persuasion."

Ed groaned. He was getting sick of people thinking he was a girl. The man in charge looked Ed over once again and nodded. "Well then, take her to the dungeon and leave her there for a while. That should make her come to her senses."

"Yes, sir!"

This time they had enough sense to have someone prevent Ed from using alchemy to escape. The guard who had been holding Ed's right arm was in the cell with him, and he was taking his sweet time as he chained Ed to the wall. By the time he had finished, they were alone in the dungeon.

He stood up and looked at Ed, who in turn glared at him. After a moment, he left the cell. Ed sighed. His arm hurt, but at least the bleeding had stopped. Of course, they had only tied something around it so that Ed wouldn't die of blood loss, so Ed felt it would be a very long time before it healed.

To his surprise, the guard returned after a few minutes and began pulling off the makeshift bandage.

"What are you doing?" Ed asked.

"Fixing this up a bit. It'll never heal if I leave it like this."

"Why do you care?"

The guard sighed as he worked. "I don't think it's right to treat a young boy like this, especially when everyone thinks you're a girl."

"Oh, so you figured it out."

"You're the one they're looking for, right? You should be glad I'm the one who got a hold of your right arm, otherwise you'd be in a much worse situation right now."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "You mean you're not going to tell them who I am?"

"If they're not smart enough to figure it out for themselves, then they don't deserve to know. Just hope nobody tries to do anything to you that would cause them to find out the truth." The man finished bandaging Ed's arm and stood up. "I'll see if I can figure out where they took your brother. Until then, you should wait here. I'll sneak food in when I can."

"Why are you helping me?" Ed asked.

"I've been working against them since I started working for them. I'm not necessarily just helping you, I'm helping whoever I can."

"Someone's coming," Ed said. The man nodded and left the cell, closing the door behind him. Just then, the door opened, and someone walked down the hall and stopped in front of Ed's cell.

"She behaving herself?" the man asked.

"She's been quiet since I put her in there."

"Good, good. Well, sorry to have to make you undo all your hard work, but she's wanted upstairs."

--------------

"So, I see that you've managed to find another woman to follow you blindly. I'm impressed. This one's a real beauty."

Ed felt his face go red. "Wait, are you saying…" Ed looked at Indiana, and looked back at the other guy. "What, you think we're… EW! NO! Why would you think that? That's just… oh, god, I think my head's going to explode."

"Hey, I'm right here, you know," Indy said.

"Yeah, and you're old enough to be my dad."

"Hey! I'm not that old!"

"You're way older than me!" As they argued, Ed glanced at the guy holding his arms. If he could just break free…

"So? What's the big deal with age?"

"It's not just the age, you perv!"

"I'M NOT A PERVERT!" Indy yelled.

"YES YOU ARE!" Ed shouted back as he got loose and brought his hands together. He placed them on the floor, and it disintegrated around the two. They fell through the floor and landed gracelessly on the floor of the room below. Ed got up first and pulled Indy out of the soldiers' line of fire. They made their way through the room to the window. Ed looked through at the other side. Luckily, they were now on the first floor, so Ed kicked at the window with his left foot. It shattered into countless pieces.

They climbed through and ran along the castle. Once they were at the corner of the building, Ed stopped. He looked around. None of the soldiers outside were aware of their presence. Ed looked down at his clothes. He clapped his hands and placed them on his chest. Immediately, his outfit resembled a German uniform. He did the same for Indy, and they ran up to the other soldiers.

"The prisoners have escaped!" Indy shouted in German. "They need backup inside!"

Immediately the soldiers ran for the castle. Nobody seemed to realize that Ed and Indy weren't following suit. Ed looked at the gates. They were open. They ran outside. The car they had taken was sitting nearby. Ed checked it. It was still in decent condition. Indy jumped into the driver's seat, and they took off down the road, only stopping when they got to the nearest town.


	6. Chapter 6

Uh… slightly filler-tastic… but still important to the story… and since _someone_ seems to have gotten the wrong impression (you know who you are…) I will give out this fact. Jeff is not a hick. Neither is anyone else associated with him.

--------------

As soon as they got checked into a hotel, Ed collapsed on one of the beds. Indy didn't bother trying to get him up. Instead, he made a phone call. The phone rang several times before Marcus Brody answered.

"Indy, where have you been? I got a package from your father today, but I was expecting to get it from you."

"I got a little sidetracked."

"Well, whatever it is, you haven't forgotten about the speech you're supposed to make next week, have you?"

"Uh, no, I didn't forget."

"If you don't show up, there's a good chance you'll lose your job, and any chance of ever going on these journeys again."

"I know. I'll be back in time, don't worry. But, I might be bringing someone with me."

"Is it another woman?"

"No, just a boy."

"Where is this boy from?"

"Yeah, see, that's where this gets tricky."

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain over the phone. I'll tell you when I get there."

"Right. I'll see you soon."

"Yeah." Indy hung up the phone and looked over at Ed. The alchemist was sound asleep. Indy sighed. He wanted to continue searching for Alphonse, but with the way things were going, he wouldn't be able to. He sat on his bed and waited for Ed to wake up. Explaining this wouldn't be easy.

-------------

Indiana woke up early the next morning. He looked over at Ed, who was lying on his side, facing the window. Indy walked over to him, intending to wake him up. They had a long way to go that day.

Ed was already awake. He was looking straight at the window, barely moving. Indy opened his mouth to speak, but Ed interrupted him.

"I should just give up," he said, looking at his hand.

"Why do you say that?"

"Al can get out of there on his own. I'd just be getting in the way."

"So you're just going to leave him there?"

"What else can I do? I already tried once, and look what good that did. I'm sick of this." Ed pulled his legs closer to his chest. "Nothing ever works for us."

Indy sighed and sat down behind Ed. "You know, feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to do anything. Maybe you just need a break."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I have to go back to America this week, which means I won't be able to help you after this. I figure you have two choices. You can stay here, or you can come with me. I know those aren't the best options, but if you come with me, at least you won't be in as much danger as if you stay."

Ed didn't say anything. Indy stood up and walked out of the room. "It's your choice. I'm leaving this afternoon, so let me know by then, okay?"

------------

Ed stared at the wall for a while. He didn't know what he wanted to do. If he stayed, he'd have a better chance of finding his brother, but at the same time, he wouldn't have any means of taking care of himself. On the other hand, if he went to America, he wouldn't have a chance of finding his brother, but he'd be able to live a semi-normal life. And he could always come back…

Ed sat up. He also needed a way to thank Indiana, and he'd have an easier time doing that if he were in the same country. Besides, he'd be chased down no matter how well he disguised himself. He sighed. It was time for a break.

He stood up and stretched, stopping when his arm began to hurt. Ed reached up to his head. Thanks to his clumsiness, he had another cut on his forehead. Ed sighed. At least he'd have some time to heal.

Ed pulled on his shoes and looked at his clothes. He hadn't bothered to change the night before, so he still looked like a German soldier. Ed retransmuted them into his normal outfit and pulled on his gloves. Just as he was heading for the door, Indy came into the room.

"So, are you coming?" he asked. Ed nodded. "Good. It's about time we got out of here anyway. There are soldiers all over. Here, wear this," Indy said as he placed his hat on Ed's head. "You'll look more like a boy now."

"Gee, thanks," Ed muttered darkly as they walked through the hotel.

--------------

Two days later, they arrived back in Italy, where Ed had his first encounter with an airplane. He looked up in amazement as the plane flew overhead. Indy noticed Ed's fascination and laughed.

"Never been on a plane before?" he asked.

"No. What is it, exactly?"

"Wait, you've never heard of a plane before?"

"No. We don't have anything like this back home. The most advanced science we have is alchemy."

"Well, it's used for transportation. That's how we're going to get to America."

"Wait, we're going on one of those things?"

"Yeah, it's a lot faster than going by ship. We'll be there in a couple of days."

Ed looked at the sky. "How safe is it?"

"Pretty safe. I go on them all the time."

They made their way to the airport, where someone was waiting for them. He seemed to be a friend of Indy's, because the two immediately began a conversation, leaving Ed to sit and stare at the planes. Finally, they boarded an airplane, and Ed stared through the window at the wings. He hoped desperately that the machine would work.

After a while, the plane took off. Luckily for Ed, it wasn't an intense takeoff, and they gently ascended into the sky. Ed spent most of his time looking out at either the wings or the ground far below. Eventually he accepted that they weren't going to crash and began to relax.

"So where do we go from here?" Ed asked.

"We'll have to change planes a couple of times, but after that we'll be in the USA."

"USA?"

"United States. The United States of America."

"Oh. What's it like there?"

Indy shrugged. "It's nothing too exciting. Although, it's the first country in the world to have a government run by the people."

"Really? How does that work?"

"We've got a voting system where people choose the political leaders, and a document that guarantees basic freedoms and rights."

"And that works?"

"Yep. Works pretty well, too."

"Good to know." Ed went back to looking out the window. He was slowly getting used to the idea of riding in a plane. Eventually, he got bored and fell asleep.

----------------

By the time they got to the US, Ed had had his fill of plane rides. He walked happily through the airport, having gotten through customs with his papers from the boat trip and a very convincing pity face. Once they got outside, Indy led Ed to a man who was waiting next to a car. The man introduced himself as Marcus Brody.

They drove through the town and stopped at a house. Ed got out and followed Indy to the front door. "This your house?" he asked.

"No, this is my dad's. You'll be staying with him."

"Oh, you're sick of me already?" Ed said with a smug grin.

"Actually, I am. You're a pain to deal with. And you whine too much."

"And if I were with my brother we wouldn't have a problem with that."

"What, your brother can prevent you from getting seasick?"

Ed was about to retort when the door opened, and Henry Jones Sr. looked at the two with a smile. "Oh, you finally made it." He paused when he saw Ed's hair. "What happened to your-"

"His fault," Ed said, pointing at Indiana without hesitation.

-------------

"So you didn't find him." The two Joneses were talking in the kitchen as Ed took on the task of explaining an alchemy text to Brody. They looked at him through the door to the living room as they spoke.

"No, we did, but we couldn't get him out of there."

"Are you going to go back?"

"When I can. But until then, he'll just have to act like a normal teenager."

"That's going to be hard. But the good news is, I already talked to the school. They're fine with him going there for a few weeks. But you're going to tell him he has to go."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the one who brought him here in the first place."

Indy sighed and stood up. He walked into the living room, where Marcus was thinking about everything Ed had said. He stood up when he saw Indy, looking fairly confused. Ed was still concentrating on the book.

"I don't see how he can understand that. It's much too complicated."

"Yeah, well don't think too hard."

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."

Indy sat next to Ed, who finally stopped looking at the book and turned his attention to the archaeologist. "What's up?"

"I'm heading out now."

"Great. See you later."

"And you're going to school tomorrow."

"Hah?"

"You heard me. It'll be too suspicious if you don't do things a normal teenager would do. You start tomorrow at the local high school."

Ed stared in shock as Indy walked out of the house and to the car.

-------------

The next morning, Ed woke up early. He blinked a few times, trying to figure out what was going on. Then he remembered: he was going to school for the first time in four years.

He got up and pulled on his clothes. When he got downstairs, someone was waiting for him. He looked at Ed for a minute before coming to his senses.

"Finally! Come on, we're going to be late!"

Ed blinked in confusion before realizing that the boy was probably another student. "Oh, right." He followed the kid out the door and down the street. They were walking pretty fast. As Ed walked down the road, he saw a car pass. Several kids were riding in it, and when they saw the two on the road, they stopped.

"Hey, Jeff," the driver said.

"Oh, hi, Jim," the boy replied.

"That the new kid?"

"Yeah."

"Well, get on. I'll give you a ride to school."

"Really? Thanks!"

The two of them sat down in the back seat, in between two huge boys. One of them tousled Jeff's hair. "So, you gonna introduce your friend or not? Hey there, I'm Bill."

Ed took Bill's outstretched hand. "I'm Edward."

"Wait, Edward's a boy's name," the other guy said.

"Yeah."

"So why'd your parents give you a boy's name?" asked one of the girls in the front seat.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Maybe because I'm a boy? How about that?"

"No way, you're a boy? You look like a girl!"

"You should get a haircut."

Ed sighed. "Yeah, well, my hair was actually longer a while ago, and back then NOBODY mistook me for a girl."

"Yeah, right."

"No, seriously. I kept it in a braid, and nobody questioned it at all."

Jeff looked around and decided to change the subject. "Hey, Ed, you're a freshman, right? How old are you?"

"Fifteen," Ed replied, and then braced himself for multiple comments about his height.

"Fifteen? Wow, I thought you were twelve!"

"Yeah, me too! I figured you were just a genius or something."

"I thought he looked older than that."

"Were your parents midgets or something?"

"No!"

-----------------

Once they got there, Bill was gracious enough to lead Ed to the principal's office. He seemed to know the way very well.

"Yeah, I end up coming here a lot. At least this time I'll have a good reason."

"I'm guessing you get in trouble a lot, then?"

"Yeah. How about you? You definitely look like a troublemaker."

Ed laughed. "You have no idea."

"I guess we'll be seeing each other fairly often then."

"What, do freshmen and seniors not usually hang out?"

"Not really. Usually we treat freshmen like dirt. It's a tradition. We're only nice to Jeff because he's Jim's little brother, and Jim's helped us out a lot. He helps his brother a lot too." Bill slowed down. "Hey, you're in Jeff's class, right? Would you mind watching out for him? People give him a lot of trouble, but he's a good kid."

Ed shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"Thanks. It'd mean a lot to Jeff if he had someone his age to hang out with."

"Yeah, but I'm leaving in a few weeks."

"I know, but by that time, he'll probably have adjusted to this school."

"Yeah, I'll do what I can."

They arrived at the principal's office. Bill knocked on the door, and a voice from within called them in. Behind the desk was an older man, who looked up at Bill with a resigned sigh.

"What is it this time?" he asked with a resigned sigh.

"Oh, I'm not in trouble, Mr. Hasdleiner. I'm just here to drop this kid off."

Mr. Hasdleiner looked at Ed with some interest. "And who is this?"

"I'm Edward Elric," Ed said, wondering how the man would react. Surprisingly, he didn't make any comments about his hair or his height. He just sighed and pulled out a piece of paper. "Thank you, Bill. You can go to class now. I'll write you a note."

"But class hasn't started y-" Bill's voice was drowned out by the sound of a bell. When the ringing was over, he sighed. "Thank you, sir." He glared at Ed as he grabbed the note. Ed smiled and muttered, "Sorry."

Mr. Hasdleiner gestured to a chair. "Sit down." Once Ed was seated, he continued. "I've been told that you haven't been to school for a while. When was the last time you were in a classroom?"

"About four years ago, sir."

"What were you doing instead of going to school?"

"I was traveling with my brother. I've also been concentrating a lot on studying the elements." _Yeah, that's sort of true…_

"I've heard. So, due to your background, I've placed you in basic courses. Here is your schedule. I'll take you to your first period class and introduce you to your classmates."

-------------

At three o'clock, the final bell rang, and Ed wearily trudged next to Jeff as they made their way back to their street. The two were quiet. It had been a long day, especially for Ed.

Finally, Jeff spoke up. "Hey, do you want to come over to my house later tonight? We're emptying the swimming pool next week, so my brother's saying we should take advantage of it while we can."

"You have a swimming pool?" Ed asked.

"Yeah, our parents had it installed when they were still alive."

Ed stopped. "Your parents are dead?"

"Yeah, they died in an accident this summer."

Ed continued walking. "It's hard to have to lose someone like that."

Jeff looked at Ed curiously. "What about your family? You're acting like you know what I'm going through."

"To an extent, yes. I know what it's like to grow up without real parents, at least."

"What happened?"

"My mom got sick when we were really little."

"What about your dad?"

Ed shrugged. "No idea where that bastard is. I gotta say, I don't really care, either. It's just been me and my little brother for a long time."

"Where's your brother right now? Shouldn't he be with you?"

Ed looked down. "I don't know," he replied, his voice barely audible. "I want to find him, but it's impossible for me to know where to look."

"Oh. I-I'm sorry."

"No worries. I'll find him sometime."

"So… do you want to come over tonight?"

"Yeah, see, the thing is, I can't swim."

"It's not that deep."

"Doesn't matter. I try to avoid stuff like that."

"Why?"

Ed paused. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

Jeff looked downcast. "So, I guess you don't want to come over, then?"

"I just remembered, I wouldn't be able to come over tonight anyways. I have to go to some speech or something. Maybe we can do something else some other time. As long as it doesn't involve a body of water."

"Yeah, sounds good. See you tomorrow, okay?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah, see you."

---------------

When Ed arrived at the house, Indy was in the kitchen. He said hi to Ed, who grunted in reply.

"How was school?"

Ed set his books down and glared at Indy. "Well, thanks to you, half of the school thinks I'm a twelve-year-old girl."

"Hey, at least it isn't everybody."

"Yeah, well the other half is full of people in denial. Some kid in my class was about to ask me out."

"You should take that as a compliment. Most people would love to be asked out on their first day."

"Not me."

Indy laughed. "Well, I have something for you for tonight."

"It's not a dress, is it?"

"Sadly, no. Here," Indy said as he handed Ed a bundle of clothes. Ed took it and went upstairs. It was a suit. Ed breathed a sigh of relief as he changed clothes. Maybe, just maybe, people would treat him like a boy for once since his haircut.

--------------

Five minutes into the speech, Ed lost interest and began thinking about what he had to do once he returned to his world. He continued to look at the stage, feigning interest until everyone stood up and began to clap.

Afterwards, Ed did his best to be polite to the people he was introduced to. He was rather surprised by the amount of respect Indy had in the archaeological community. He was also surprised to realize that nobody had bothered to ask about where he was from for at least half an hour.

Finally, Indy introduced him to an elderly man with surprisingly dark hair. He introduced himself as Mr. Smith.

"So, I hear you're studying alchemy," he said with a somewhat creepy smile.

Before Ed could reply, Indy confirmed that statement. "That's right. I have to say, if anyone can actually use alchemy, it's this kid. You can show him the most complicated texts and he'll understand it in a minute."

Despite himself, Ed was enjoying the praise. He felt a smug grin creep onto his face, but it went away when Mr. Smith asked about his parents.

"I haven't heard of any Elrics before. Where are you from?"

Ed looked at Indy for help, but didn't get any. "Well… I haven't ever stayed in one place for very long, and my Mom died before I could really learn anything about her family," he said, hoping that Mr. Smith would take that as a hint to change the subject.

"So does Elric come from your mother? What's your father's name?"

"Uh…" Ed looked over at Indy, who still was still not going to help him. "Hohenheim."

"Really?" Mr. Smith asked, raising his eyebrows. "Are you talking about Von Hohenheim?"

Ed was slightly taken aback. He hadn't mentioned his father's name to anybody in this world. How did this man know it? Indy was rather surprised, too, but he still didn't say anything. "Yeah, that's right…"

"Well, it's no wonder you understand alchemy so well. You even look like him."

Ed was still very confused. How the heck did this person know his father?

The man continued. "I didn't realize he had a family now. How is he?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"I haven't seen him for around ten years."

"Oh, so you wouldn't know where he is now, would you?"

Ed shook his head, hoping desperately – even praying – that the conversation would soon be over.

"That's too bad. I had something I wanted to give him. Well, it was nice meeting you. Dr. Jones, I enjoyed your speech, and I'll see you around."

Ed stared at Mr. Smith as he walked off. Indy stared too. "Well, I guess your dad's been around here too."

"Yeah, great," Ed replied, his tone of voice implying that he thought just the opposite of what he said. "But it's kind of nice to know that me and Al aren't the only ones."

"Speaking of which, someone asked me if I'd be willing to go to the Middle East for a research project, which means I'll probably end up spending some time in Europe. And I could use some help when I'm over there. What do you say?"

Ed shrugged. "Sure. When?"

"In a couple of weeks. Think you can wait that long?"

"Yeah, of course I can."

-------------

Ed was in a daze all through the next day at school. He only snapped out of it when his science teacher smacked a ruler on his desk. "Mr. Elric! Can you please pay attention?"

"Sorry," Ed muttered sheepishly. He could tell Jeff was trying not to laugh behind him.

"All right, since you're back with us now, would you mind telling the class some properties of the human body?"

Ed sighed. "Which ones?"

"What do you mean, which ones?"

"Which properties are you talking about? I want to be sure I'm talking about the right ones."

"Oh, being a smart-aleck, eh? Just tell me everything you know."

Ed sighed and began reciting everything he had learned while trying to bring back his mother. It was at least ten minutes before the teacher stopped him.

"Now you're just making things up."

"Do you have proof of that?" Ed replied.

"Of course I do, right here," the teacher replied, pointing at his textbook.

"Okay, prove me wrong then."

The teacher opened the book and began looking through it. After a good twenty minutes, he looked back up at Ed. "All right, you proved your point. Just don't start daydreaming again."

"Are you sure you don't want me to continue?" Ed asked with a smug grin.

"No, that's quite all right." The man cleared his throat before speaking again. "Now, to the next chapter-" he said as the bell rang. Everyone stood up and began leaving the room. Jeff walked next to Ed and laughed as soon as they were out of the building.

"I can't believe you did that! That was incredible!" he said as they walked down the street. "Nobody's ever done that to Mr. Snivels. Not even the bad kids mess with him."

Ed laughed. He was in a good mood. He and Jeff chatted amicably as they walked down the street. After a bit, Jeff stopped.

"Looks like it's going to rain tonight," he said as he looked at the sky.

Ed looked up too. "Yeah, I'd say so."

"Hey, do you want to come over tonight? Since we probably won't be able to use the pool…"

"Sure."

"Great."

--------------

The next two weeks passed by peacefully, and Ed was hanging out at Jeff's house, enjoying his final moments with people his age. After a while, Jeff pulled him aside and led him out of the house.

"Where are we going?" Ed asked.

"Someplace where my brother won't find us," Jeff replied. "I want to talk to you, but I don't want him to interrupt."

After a bit, they came to a cleverly hidden cave. Ed looked around as Jeff lit a small lamp. "There. That should last for a while." He sat down and turned to Ed. "You're leaving tomorrow, right? Are you going to come back ever?"

"No, I don't think so. I'd like to, but things probably won't work out that way."

"I'll miss having you around. It's been great having a friend my age."

Ed smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, it's been nice being able to be with people my age for a while. If it weren't for my brother, I wouldn't mind staying here."

It was quiet for a while. Finally, Jeff spoke up again. "Hey, Ed? You know how you said there was something you'd tell me later? What was it?"

Ed looked at Jeff for a moment before speaking. "You really want to know?" he asked.

"Yeah, if that's okay."

"Fine, but you can't tell anyone about this, okay? It's not exactly something you see in this w… around here."

"Okay, I promise. It's not like I have anyone to tell, anyway, other than my brother…"

Ed pulled off his shirt, fully revealing the automail underneath. Jeff stared at the metal for several minutes before speaking.

"What is that?" he asked in awe.

"It's called automail. It's a special kind of prosthetic limb."

"Is that why you can't swim?"

"Yeah, it weighs down my body."

"Why do you have to hide it?"

"Because if people saw it, they'd start asking questions that I can't exactly answer. If people find out where I'm from, there'll be no end to the problems."

Jeff stared at the arm for another moment. "So, there really isn't an arm underneath that metal?"

Ed shook his head. "Nope. Here, I'll show you."

"No, that's okay, I believe you." Jeff looked at his watch. "Oh, shoot, we'd better get back. Weren't you supposed to be back by nine?"

"Yeah, we should go."

Ed said his farewells to Jeff, Jim, and Jim's friends before leaving. For some reason, he felt like he'd be seeing them again, even though he knew that couldn't happen.


	7. Chapter 7

Ah, yes, updates… Longer chapter this time, didn't know a good place to split the story, so you don't get any real cliffhangers this time around… aren't you lucky? D

---------------

All of a sudden, a huge storm blew in out of nowhere. The wind began pushing the plane way off course, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing before they ended up over the ocean. Thankfully he was a skilled pilot, so the landing was an easy one.

Indy shook Ed awake as the pilot checked the plane for damage. The small alchemist sat up and looked around.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We got caught in a storm. We're somewhere in Africa now."

"Does that mean we're stuck here now?" Ed asked irritably.

"If the plane's damaged, then yes, unless we just happened to land next to a town or city."

Ed groaned and looked out the window. There was a steady downpour of rain. He couldn't see very far, but he saw a shadow in the distance. It was moving.

Ed pointed this out to Indy, who looked out the window with Ed for a moment. "Stay here," he said as he went to the door. "I'll go see what's going on."

Ed continued to look through the window as Indy left the plane. After another moment, the shadow came close enough for Ed to see that it was a man. He spoke with Indy for a moment before turning back. Indy entered the plane and walked over to Ed.

"What was that all about?" Ed asked.

"That guy knows a mechanic nearby. He's going to see if he can get help."

"So are we near a town or something?"

"I guess so."

After a while, the man came back with two other men. One of them had a toolbox and began helping the pilot fix the plane. Eventually, he turned to Indy and spoke in a strange language.

"What's he saying?" Ed asked.

"He says it's going to take a few days to fix this, so we should go to his master's house to wait."

"His master?"

"Yeah, Mr. Smith. This guy works for him."

Ed blinked. "Wait, you mean that guy who said he knows my father?"

"That's the one."

"That's convenient."

"Sure is."

-------------

After a trek through the African wilderness, they came to a house in the center of a small town. It wasn't big by Ed's usual standards, but it was the biggest house in the town.

The mechanic knocked on the door and stepped back. Moments later, Mr. Smith opened the door and looked with surprise at the two soaked travelers.

"Well, well, this is a pleasant surprise. What brings you here?"

"We were flying to Egypt, and we had to make an emergency landing nearby."

"Oh, so you're the ones my mechanic went to help. Come in, come in."

They entered the small house, and a servant took Ed's suitcase.

"Here, you two can stay in the guest room. I'm actually glad you're here. There's something I've been trying to figure out. Maybe you can help me. Of course," he continued. "You should change out of those clothes first. I wouldn't want you to get sick."

---------------

Ed pulled off his shirt and sat on the bed for a moment. "So, what exactly does he do around here?" he asked Indy, who was changing behind him.

"He's studying African culture, and helping the poorer villages around here."

Ed pulled a dry shirt out of his suitcase before looking at his arm. He checked to make sure nobody was watching, other than Indy, and used alchemy to dry off the cloth that covered the metal.

Ed sat staring at his arm for a while, trying to figure out some way to avoid having to answer too many questions. Indy looked at his arm too for a moment.

"Just wear a long-sleeved shirt. Better make it a light one, though. Even though it's raining right now, it'll be hot when it stops."

"Right," Ed muttered, pulling on a light brown shirt. Once he was dressed, Ed followed Indy to the living room, where Mr. Smith was sitting in front of a pile of papers. He looked up when the two entered and gestured for them to sit down.

"So, Edward, you know a great deal about alchemy, right? Could you help me tomorrow? We found an odd transmutation circle nearby and we can't figure out what it's for."

"Yeah, sure," Ed replied, not wanting to be rude. Mr. Smith smiled and stood up.

"Very good. We'll go over early tomorrow morning."

------------------

Ed woke up in the middle of the night to a hand covering his mouth. When he tried to pry it off, he realized he couldn't move his hands. Someone was pinning him down.

Ed looked around the room. Indy was still asleep, blissfully unaware of the fact that Ed was in the process of being kidnapped. Ed struggled to bring his hands together, but to no avail. He saw a shadow at his feet and kicked out at it. There was a muffled grunt, and whoever it was grabbed onto his flailing legs and pushed them down. That's when Ed tried to wake Indy up, but his voice couldn't be heard through the hand that was covering his mouth.

After a moment, Ed could make out the face of the man who had his hand over Ed's mouth. It was the mechanic who had agreed to fix the plane. He smirked at Ed before bringing the butt of a rifle into the side of Ed's head. Ed grimaced at the intense pain and went limp. He was barely conscious as his captors tied a rope around his arms and carried him out of the room.

------------------

Indy woke up early the next morning. When he looked over toward where Ed had fallen asleep the night before, he was surprised to see that the young alchemist wasn't there. He got up and walked into the kitchen, where Mr. Smith was eating breakfast.

"Oh, you're up," he said, not really looking at Indy.

"Yeah. Where's Ed?" Indy asked.

"Oh, he went out early with my men to take a look at that circle. My mechanic said he was awake before anyone else. He'll be back around nightfall."

"Oh, okay," Indy muttered as he sat down. He spent most of the day assisting Mr. Smith with research and such.

That evening, Indy sat on the deck of the small house, waiting for Ed to show up. Mr. Smith joined him as the stars became brighter. "How strange," he muttered. "They should have been back by now."

Indy stood up. "Think something happened?" he asked.

"No, I doubt it. They probably were just running a bit late. If they don't show up in the next hour or two, then it probably means they didn't leave soon enough and are spending the night out there. I don't want them crossing through the wilderness at night."

Indy sighed and continued to wait. After a couple of hours, he gave up on waiting and went to his room. He was slightly surprised to see a few drops of blood on the floor.

-----------------

Mr. Smith examined the blood on both the floor and the small couch where Ed had been sleeping. After a few minutes, he straightened and turned to Indy.

"This isn't good," he said before leaving the room. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted those men."

"What, you mean the ones that Ed went with this morning?" Indy asked, following Mr. Smith to a small closet.

"Yes. Edward went with them, but I doubt it was willingly. And now there's no telling where they are."

"But why would they take Ed?"

"Don't you get it?" Mr. Smith asked Indy. "The reason that that boy knows so much about alchemy is because he _is_ an alchemist. Those men are greedy. They'll probably force him to-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. How do you know Ed's an alchemist? There's no way you can prove that."

"Think about it. He can easily decipher alchemy texts that take years for normal adults to understand. His father is Hohenheim. In case you didn't know, Hohenheim is perfectly capable of using alchemy, so it stands to reason that his son would have the same abilities. I know it's hard to believe, but…"

"No, I believe you. I've seen that kid use alchemy before."

"Then you should understand why it's so important to get him out of there. Come on. If we leave now, we may have a chance of finding them."

"But where would they have gone?" Indy asked.

"My best guess is that transmutation circle we found the other day. Those men are the ones who found it, so they might be trying to get Edward to use it."

They grabbed some supplies and jumped into a car just outside the village. The engine roared as they drove through the night.

---------------

"Ugh… my head…" Ed muttered as he opened his eyes. He was in total darkness and firmly chained to the floor. Once Ed remembered what had happened the night before, he tried to bring his hands together, but to no avail. They were too far apart. He lay on the ground for a long time, not quite able to move. His head ached terribly.

He heard a noise, and light flooded the room. Ed shut his eyes as a pair of footsteps approached him. As a shadow fell over his face, Ed opened his eyes a little. Someone was standing over him. Ed couldn't see the man's face.

"So, you're awake."

"What the hell do you want with me?" Ed asked, ignoring the searing pain in his head.

"I know who you are. You're an alchemist, and we require your skills for a project."

"What kind of project?" Ed asked.

The man kneeled down next to Ed, his face still impossible to see because of the light behind him. "You know how to create a human being. We need that knowledge."

Ed blinked. "How did…"

"How did we know you could do something like that? It's simple. Your little friend told us."

"My… friend…?" Ed asked, trying to think. Then it dawned on him. "What did you do with him?"

"He's sitting with some friends of mine nearby. He'll be happy to see you."

Ed groaned. The pain was a bit much for him. He felt his eyes closing as the man stood up. "You begin your work tomorrow."

---------------

Indy jumped out of the car before Mr. Smith turned it off and ran toward the cave that housed the mysterious transmutation circle. Once at the entrance, he slowed down and looked inside. There were a bunch of people sitting around, one of which Indy vaguely recognized. He was about to get closer when he felt a gun pointed at his head.

"Well now, why don't you go on in and check for Ed?" Mr. Smith asked with a smug grin. "I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

Indy was about to retort when the people from the cave came out with guns. One of them grabbed Indy's hands and wrenched them behind the archaeologist's back. Mr. Smith gestured for Indy to enter the cave. Indy ended up sitting next to a fifteen-year-old boy who looked like a wounded puppy. The boy had a bruise on his face, but his hands were free.

"Now then, let's see if that alchemist is worth the trouble of getting him here."

"Wait, you mean all this was a setup?" Indy asked.

"Of course. With power like that, I'm amazed you haven't been taking advantage of it yourself, Dr. Jones."

"Because that's not fair to Ed. Do you really think he's going to be willing to help you?"

"Of course he will. He _does_ let his emotions get the better of him."

Just then, someone walked up to Mr. Smith. "The boy's unconscious at the moment. You'll have to wait."

"Very well. Take these two away for the moment. They can come back for the show."

---------------

Ed lay on the floor for a while, trying to think. What all did they know about him? Were they keeping his hands apart on purpose, or was it just a coincidence? And what exactly were they planning on making him do? He thought about it for a long time, but eventually he gave up. His head hurt.

After a while, someone entered the room and walked up to Ed. Ed looked sleepily at the person. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Get up."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"What do you think? I can't move like this."

The man sighed and let Ed go loose. Ed tried to make a break for it, but his body didn't respond the way he wanted it to, so he didn't accomplish much other than sitting up. The man stood next to him for a moment before holding out a hand. "Jeez. You're pathetic."

Ed slowly walked behind the man through some tunnels until they came to a large cavern. He was surprised to see Mr. Smith sitting nearby. The man next to Ed forced him to sit down next to the old man. Smith put down the papers he was looking at and faced Ed.

"So. You're awake."

Ed didn't respond. He hadn't trusted Mr. Smith, but he had hoped that the man would at least be somewhat kind to him. Instead, Ed found himself being forced to use alchemy for a man who didn't give a damn about Ed's life. Mr. Smith stood up and walked to the center of the cavern, where there was half of a transmutation circle on the ground.

"Now then, I'd like you to finish this."

"What is it?" Ed asked.

"You're a bright boy, you should be able to figure that out for yourself. Go ahead and look."

Ed stood up and began observing the unfinished circle on the ground. He paced around, trying to figure out what it meant. Finally, he stopped. "Human transmutation," he muttered. "You're trying to make a human?"

"Several humans, to be more precise. I need a lot of men for my next project, and what better way to get them than through making them?"

Ed shook his head. "You're a fool."

"I've heard that humans are nearly impossible to make. That is why I'm asking you to help."

"Asking?" Ed muttered. "That's an interesting way of putting it."

"Maybe I can convince you by offering something in return?"

"Yeah? Like what?"

"The lives of your companions, for one, and also," Mr. Smith put a hand on Ed's shoulder. "The chance to be reunited with your brother."

Ed broke away from the man in surprise. "You know where he is?"

"Yes, and I can make sure to let you see him again."

Ed paused. He thought hard about Smith's words. Getting to see his brother again? Was that really worth risking his life again? And what about Indy and Jeff? He couldn't exactly leave them to die. He thought about his brother again. Then it dawned on him.

"All right, I'll do it," Ed muttered.

Smith smiled. "Good, good. I have everything you need to do this. For now, though, why don't you just complete the circle?"

-------------

Jeff sat in a corner of the room, his arms wrapped around his knees. "Sorry," he muttered. Indy looked over in confusion.

"What?"

"If I hadn't hung around Ed so much, they would never have found out that he knows so much about the human body, and then you wouldn't be in this situation."

"Hey, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have said so much about Ed's talent either. And even if I hadn't, there's still the fact that Smith seems to have met Ed's father at one point in time."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, did Ed ever tell you how he lost his arm and leg?"

"You know about that?"

"Yeah, he showed me."

"No, I don't know anything about it. When I asked, he just said it was because he had done something stupid. He didn't elaborate."

"I wonder if it has something to do with alchemy."

"Could be. And then there's his brother-" Indy cut his sentence short as two men approached. They took the prisoners out of the room and brought them to an open cavern. Ed was standing nearby, and he looked with regret at his friends.

"Ed! What are you doing?" Indy shouted at the small alchemist. Ed looked away.

"He's about to help me out," Mr. Smith said, putting a hand on Ed's shoulder. "In exchange for your lives and getting to see his brother."

Indy stared at Ed in shock. "Ed, you don't actually believe him, do you?"

Ed looked at Indy again. "Sorry, but this… this is all I can do…"

"Don't be a moron! Ed!" Indy was about to continue when he saw Ed make a gesture with his hand. Indy stopped and looked at the ground. "You're being stupid, you know that?"

Ed looked back at Indy with sad eyes before turning to Mr. Smith. The old man nodded at Ed, who took up a position at the edge of the circle. He kneeled down, quickly brought his hands together, and placed them on the circle. There was a huge flash of light, and smoke filled the room.

Indy coughed and tried to look through the smoke. He felt something go through the ropes around his hands, and looked back to see Ed standing behind him, a wild grin on his face and a blade sticking out from his arm.

"Did it work?" they heard Smith call out. "I can't see anything."

Ed looked over at where the voice had come from and disappeared into the smoke, whispering to Indy, "Help Jeff." Once he had been lost from sight, Ed shouted, "I… I think it did… let me- Argh!"

"What? What happened?" Smith shouted. Indy laughed quietly as he grabbed Jeff's arm and led him through the cavern to the exit. Once outside, Indy pointed at a car. "Wait here," he said. "I'm going to help Ed."

Inside the cavern, Ed was using alchemy to cause quite a panic. There were flashes everywhere, and Ed would occasionally shout something like, "NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" and "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"

Once Indy found Ed, the two made their way out of the cavern. Ed used alchemy to block off the entrance before turning to the car. Mr. Smith was holding a gun to Jeff's head.

"You brat. You tricked me."

Ed brought his hands together as he faced Smith. "Let him go," he muttered darkly.

"No, I don't think I will. Put your hands down, otherwise I'll kill him." Ed let his arms go limp as Smith laughed. "That was quite a display of alchemy there. I didn't realize you could use it without a circle."

Ed glared at Smith. "Let him go. He has nothing to do with this."

To Indy's surprise, Smith pushed Jeff away from him and turned his gun to Ed. "Very well. It's become painfully clear that you're of no use to me anyway," he said as he pulled the trigger. Ed fell back in surprise, clutching his chest. Indy was about to rush the old man when the car exploded, sending Smith flying. Once Indy was sure Smith wouldn't cause another problem, he ran to Ed's side.

Ed was clutching his side. "Heh, that guy doesn't know how to aim."

Indy looked at where Ed's hand was. "You're lucky he didn't hit anything important. Come on, let's get you out of here."

Jeff helped Ed get into another car as Indy got it started. Indy was surprised to see how well Jeff was taking all of this. He was even more surprised to see how Jeff was treating the now semi-conscious Ed.

"I've been wanting to become a doctor," Jeff said when he realized how surprised Indy was. "My brother's been helping me with that dream. Before Ed came, I was spending most of my time at the hospital, learning everything I could and helping patients."

"That's a good thing to learn," Indy replied as he drove through the night.

--------------

Ed slowly opened his eyes. He looked around at the room he was in. It looked strangely familiar. After a moment, he realized he was in a hospital.

Ed tried to sit up, but it was too painful. Instead, he just looked at the ceiling, waiting for someone to come in. After a while, he heard the door open and looked over. Indy walked over to the bed and sat down next to it.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked.

"Fine. What happened?"

"We got out and drove to this city in the middle of the night. Smith got arrested, too."

"Where's Jeff?"

"He's with his brother, who was in the city looking for him. They're going home in a couple of days."

Ed tried once again to sit up, but Indy pushed him down. "I have a question for you."

"What is it?"

"What exactly made you decide to trick Smith?"

Ed gazed at the ceiling. "When he said he'd help me see my brother again, the way he said it didn't imply that he meant Al would be free from the Nazis. I figured he meant that if I helped him, we'd end up back in Germany, and I didn't want that. Besides, it's impossible to create a human with alchemy."

"How do you know it's impossible?" Indy asked.

Ed was quiet for several minutes. Finally, he spoke again, his voice barely audible. "I've tried it before. You've seen the results of it."

"What do you mean?" Indy asked.

"Do you think it's just a coincidence that my brother's the way he is? Or that my body's like this? No, if you try human transmutation, you're doomed to fail." Ed looked at the ceiling. "And of course I had to drag my brother into it."

"Why did you try something like that?"

Ed sighed. "We were really young when our mom died. All we wanted was to see her again. We just wanted to be happy. And," Ed paused. "We thought we could do it. Ever since then, we've been trying to find a way to regain what we've lost, but everything's been a dead end so far."

"_What else can I do? I already tried once, and look what good that did._ _I'm sick of this." Ed pulled his legs closer to his chest. "Nothing ever works for us."_ It was at that moment that Indy finally understood just how serious Ed had been.

-------------

Jeff sat quietly outside Ed's hospital room. He had wanted to talk to Ed before nightfall, but at the moment someone was changing Ed's bandages. After a while, Jeff heard a crash in the room, and some shouts. Jeff tried very hard to resist the urge to go into the room to see what was happening.

After a while, two very flustered people walked out of the room. One of them walked down the hall while the other stopped in front of Jeff.

"Your friend's healing well, but it would have been nice to know beforehand that he hates milk."

Jeff looked at the man in confusion. "Is that what that was all about?"

"Yep. I take it you didn't know about his milk issues either?"

"No, I didn't have a clue."

The doctor sighed. "Well, you can go in there now, but don't expect him to be too happy."

Jeff nodded and cautiously went inside the room. Ed was sitting with his arms crossed, looking out the window. He didn't look happy in the least.

"Ed? Are you okay?" Jeff asked cautiously.

"No, I'm not okay. Those two just force-fed me the vilest stuff in the world."

Jeff suppressed a laugh. "Well, milk is good for you."

"Hey, I don't drink milk and I turned out fine."

_Except for the fact that you're short,_ Jeff thought, but he didn't say that out loud. Ed glared at him.

"You want to say something about my height, don't you?" he asked in an accusing tone. "Well, you know what? It also has something to do with the fact that I have this weighing me down." Ed pointed to his right arm as he said this.

Jeff decided it was time for a subject change. He sat down next to Ed with a sigh. "How's your side?"

"It's fine. It should be healed in a couple of days."

"That's good. Jim says we're going to head back soon. Do… do you know what you're going to do after this?"

"Nah, I don't have a clue. I'll probably just keep traveling and trying to find my brother."

"What will you do after you find your brother?"

"I'm going to try and find a way to get home. Although, I don't know how easy that'll be."

"Why are you trying so hard?"

Ed stared at the bed. "I messed things up big-time for the two of us. Al is suffering a lot because of my bad decisions. I have to make it up to him, and the sooner, the better."

It was quiet in the room for a long time. After a while, Jeff stretched and stood up. "Well, I should go now. I probably won't be seeing you again, so goodbye. And thanks."

"Thanks for what? If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have had to deal with any of this."

"Maybe not, but now I know that I can become what I want to be. And besides, it was kind of fun, in a way."

Ed watched as Jeff walked to the door. "Hey, maybe we'll end up seeing each other again."

Jeff shrugged. "Could be. Bye."

"Bye."


	8. Chapter 8

Ah, yeah, been a while since I updated this one… but it's here now… enjoy…

--------------

Ed yawned as he stared through the plane window. It had been about a week before Ed had been let out of the hospital, and even then he couldn't do much without his side erupting in pain, which is why he hadn't moved during the duration of the plane ride.

After a while, Ed decided that he needed to move before he became too stiff. He shifted so that he was facing the inside of the plane. Indy was sitting across from him. The archaeologist was reading a book of some kind. Ed sank into a comfortable position and closed his eyes.

"It's not worth going to sleep now," Indy said. "We're only a half hour away from our destination."

Ed opened his eyes and sighed. "What exactly are we doing when we get there?" he asked.

"We're going to be looking at some interesting buildings."

"How exactly is a building interesting?"

"These were built over three thousand years ago. Considering the technology of that time, it's amazing that those buildings exist."

Ed yawned again. "And why should I care about that?"

"Because you're going to have to look at them whether you want to or not. Unless you'd rather have me ditch you."

"I doubt you'd do that," Ed said.

"Why's that?"

"Because you're too intrigued by the idea of someone who's actually able to understand and use alchemy to do that."

"Speaking of which, why is it that you can use it? Nobody around here has been able to put into practice, or at least they haven't admitted to it."

Ed turned his head to the window. "I've been thinking about that, too. I'm thinking that maybe there's something missing."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. When I looked at those books, they all seemed to be complete, but I still got the feeling that something wasn't there. I'd have to look at it again to see what it is, though."

"Well, those books were all translated from Latin, so maybe something got lost in translation."

Ed thought about it for a while. "Yeah, maybe…"

------------------

As they walked through the city, Ed felt his arm absorbing the heat again. He groaned and looked around. "You could have told me we were going to another desert."

"Oh, I didn't mention it? Sorry, I guess I forgot."

Ed looked at Indy for a moment. "You know something? You remind me of someone I know back home."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Because you're both sarcastic playboys who get a kick out of messing with me. Only you haven't tried blackmailing me yet."

Indy stared at Ed. "Playboy?"

"Yeah, why else would they have called me _another_ woman back then?"

"Okay, so I've met a few girls. Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, I was just naming a similarity," Ed replied.

"So, who is this person I remind you of?" Indy asked.

"Colonel Roy Mustang. He's the one I'm under in the military." Ed slowed down. He really did not like the heat. Indy noticed Ed's slow pace and slowed down as well.

"We're getting close to where we'll be staying. I'm thinking we'll work at night, that way I don't have to worry about you passing out."

Ed nodded, putting all his energy into making it to wherever they were going. As soon as they arrived, Ed collapsed on a bed and refused to move. After a few minutes, Indy made to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" Ed asked, picking up his head so that he could see.

"To meet a friend. You should get some rest, since we're going to start tonight."

Ed was about to reply when the door shut. He sighed and made his way to the bathroom. He ran some water over his arm, which sent steam into the air. Ed coughed once before doing the same for his leg. After a bit, he felt good enough to move again. He walked back to his bed and fell on his back.

After a few hours, Ed woke up to the sound of a knock on the door. He opened his eyes and sat up. Indy had returned, and he opened the door. A woman greeted Indy and walked into the room. She stopped when she saw Ed.

"Oh, I didn't realize you had a daughter."

Ed had stood up when the door opened, but now he lost all ability to move. He and Indy stared at the woman. After a moment, Ed found his voice. "Daughter…?"

"Oh, you're not related?"

"No, and I'm a boy," Ed said, glaring at her.

The woman looked very surprised, and then it turned to embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought with your hair that you were…"

"No, I'm not. I just got a bad haircut."

"Oh, it doesn't look bad, it just looks… Well, you know…"

Indy looked at Ed, who had his hands curled into fists, and decided to intervene before things got out of hand.

"So, Ed, this is Charlotte Anderson. She's going to be working on this too. Charlotte, this is Edward Elric. He's going to be helping me some."

"It's nice to meet you, Edward," Charlotte said, holding out her hand. Ed shook it briefly. He was still fuming on the inside. "How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm fifteen," Ed replied, waiting for Charlotte to be surprised. It took a minute for her to respond.

"I'm sorry?"

Ed repeated himself. "I'm fifteen years old," he said tersely.

"Fifteen? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I know my age very well. So does my brother, but since he isn't here at the moment, you'll just have to take my word for it," Ed said in a very creepy voice.

"Why are you so sensitive about your age? If it's a matter of wanting respect, I'd respect you more if you told me the truth."

"What makes you think I'm lying?" Ed asked. Indy looked at him with dread.

"You're much too immature to be fifteen. Also, you're much too small."

Luckily for Charlotte, Ed hadn't heard the second part of the sentence. He was more focused on the first part of it. "Immature? How do you know I'm immature? You only met me two minutes ago!"

"It's painfully obvious that you're not very mature. A fifteen-year-old boy wouldn't go around with a feminine haircut."

Not wanting Ed to do something drastic, Indy stepped in front of the alchemist. "Actually, the hair's my fault. We cut it to disguise him, and it got messed up. He looked a lot more like a boy before."

Charlotte looked around Indy at Ed. "I don't see how it could have made him look like a boy if it was longer."

Ed let out a sigh of exasperation and pulled his hair back. He pulled out a hair tie and put most of his hair into a ponytail. Indy looked at him in surprise. Somehow, pulling it back had given him the same look he had had before. "Now, just imagine that this is blonde and in a braid, and there's how I looked before."

"So you're not going to be honest about your age."

"He is being honest," Indy said. "You just need to get to know each other better." He quickly added, "So what did you stop by for?"

"Oh, I heard you had arrived, and I just wanted to welcome you. Is there anything I need to know?"

"Oh, yeah, we're going to work during the night, since Ed doesn't do very well with the heat."

"Then why did you bring him along?"

"Because he's very smart and he can be very helpful, even though what we're looking at isn't his specialty."

"What is his specialty?"

Ed folded his arms and stared at Charlotte. "Alchemy. I've been studying alchemy since I was little."

"Why would you want to study something like that?" Charlotte asked.

"Because it's what I'm interested in."

"But it won't do you any good in the real world. You should study something more practical."

"Yeah? Well, you know what?" Ed began, but then he caught a warning look from Indy and stopped talking.

"What?"

"W-who says that this is what I want to do as an adult? People change over time, you know." Ed paused. "And I've changed more than I wanted to since I was a kid."

---------------------

Late that night, Ed and Indy went to work. They drove out to a point far from the city and got out. There was a small group of tents there. Ed looked around as Indy led him through the tents toward a hole in the ground.

"Is this building underground?" Ed asked.

"Yeah, it's only been discovered recently."

"What's inside?"

"That's what we're here for. We're going to try and figure that out."

"And how exactly am I supposed to help when I don't know anything about the history of this place?"

"You can help carry things, and you might be able to decipher other things."

"Like what?"

"Don't know yet."

"Gee, that's helpful," Ed muttered.

Indy spoke briefly with someone next to the hole before turning to Ed. "Stay here for a minute. I'll call you when it's okay for you to come down." Ed nodded as Indy began climbing down the ladder.

After a few minutes, Ed heard a scream. He was about to climb down and check it out when the nearby man put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, it's probably because I forgot to warn him."

"Warn him? About what?"

"That place has a few snakes in it. Nothing too dangerous, but since he's afraid of snakes…"

Ed peered into the hole again, just as Indy came sprinting for the ladder. He climbed up and sat at the edge of the building, panting heavily. After a moment, he looked up at the man.

"Why didn't you warn me there were going to be snakes down there?"

The man laughed. "Sorry, I forgot you were afraid of them."

Indy looked over at Ed. "Do you have a problem with snakes?"

Ed shook his head, a smirk on his face. Indy walked off, grabbed a few things, and thrust them into Ed's hands. "Good. You can write down the symbols you see on the walls."

"What, are you really that scared?" Ed asked.

"Right now, yes. I'll be down there with you, just don't expect me to go very far until those snakes are gone."

Ed climbed down the ladder and looked around. They were in a vast room. Ed walked through it slowly as Indy stood behind him, torch in hand. As Ed got close to the wall Indy indicated, he heard hissing. He looked down, and saw that the floor was at an angle. Steps had been carved, and at the bottom of the steps were at least ten snakes.

Ed looked at the wall, and looked at Indy. "Is it okay to use alchemy down here?" he asked.

"Yeah, since there's nobody to see the flash, it should be fine. Just make sure you put everything back to the way it was. And don't do anything that could make the building collapse. It _is_ pretty old."

Ed nodded and clapped his hands. "I wasn't intending on doing anything to the building anyway." He placed his hands on the paper. Within moments, the entire contents of the walls had been recorded. Indy took the papers to the surface as Ed walked slowly to the end of the room. There was a door in the corner, barely visible in the dismal light.

Indy came back down and walked up to Ed. "Well, that was quick. I guess we can go back above and work on translating… What are you looking at?"

"There's a door right there," Ed said, pointing at the corner. Indy looked at it with interest.

"Wow, I don't think anyone's noticed that. Let's take a look."

Ed followed silently as Indy cautiously pushed the door open. On the other side was another large room. Indy handed Ed the torch as he walked quietly through the room. As Ed walked to the center of the room, he heard a noise behind him. Someone was in the doorway, and he laughed as he pulled the door shut.

Ed exchanged glances with Indy as they stood in the near darkness. Then, Ed's brain began working again and he began pounding on the door, trying to figure out a way to open it. He heard laughter on the other side.

"Well, I was wondering when we'd be running into each other again," called a voice from the other side. Ed recognized it as Peterson's. "Now, then, I suppose you'd like to know why you're trapped." When nobody responded, Peterson continued. "It's because I don't want to deal with another escape attempt. I know very well that you have powers, miss, but I doubt you'll be willing to use them in here, especially since any alteration to the structure could lead to a collapse. We'll be back for you in a few days."

Ed looked around the room again and tried to open the door. He managed to force it open, but as he arrived at the entrance, he saw that the ladder had been taken away. Peterson was standing above him. He waved at Ed and Indy.

"The good news is that it'll be nice and cool down there. Oh, and thank you for writing everything down for us." Peterson waved again as he walked off.

---------------

Ed stood beneath the hole for a while, looking up. After a while, someone noticed him and stared right back. Ed gave up after a bit and walked over to the other room, where Indy sat staring at the ceiling. Ed looked up at it too.

"Hey, what's above us right here?" he asked after a bit.

"Not much, just a tent or two. Why?"

"If I could reach it, then maybe…"

"Forget it. Peterson's bound to have guards everywhere around here."

Ed sighed and sat down. "Well, there's got to be something we can do. I don't like just waiting around like this."

Indy stared at the ceiling for a while longer. "I have an idea."

-------------------

Ed stood on Indy's shoulders just beneath the hole. He looked around, but nobody was guarding the entrance. Once Ed was sure he wouldn't be seen, he grabbed onto the edge of the hole.

"Got it," he called down softly to Indy.

"Good," Indy replied. "Now, climb out and make your way back to town. I'll catch up later."

"Eh? Why later?"

"Because I have to go a different way. Don't worry about me. I'll make it back soon enough. Just go straight to the hotel, okay?"

Ed pulled himself up and acknowledged Indy's words. He looked around, and when he saw that it was all clear, Ed made his way through the tents and down the road. As soon as he was out of sight of the tents, Ed broke into a run. He only stopped when he arrived at the town. The sun was rising.

Ed walked through the town to the hotel. As he entered the room, he saw someone standing next to his bed. Ed took a defensive pose as he tried to see who was standing before him. It was Charlotte.

"Oh, you're back. Good. Where's Dr. Jones?"

"He's… a little busy. He'll be here soon."

"Good." Charlotte walked straight up to Ed and looked straight into his eyes. "You really are immature. Did you not even think of asking why I'm here?"

Ed took a step back. As he did so, he felt strong hands on his arms. Ed looked back to see Indy standing behind him. He looked back at Charlotte with suspicion.

"Give the kid a break. He's stressed out at the moment."

Charlotte smiled and walked up to Ed. She put a hand underneath Ed's chin. "Such an unusual boy. Well, my job is done. I'll be going now."

Ed watched as Charlotte walked off. He stepped away from Indy and sat down. "That was fast," he muttered.

Indy smirked and did a swift kick. His foot landed against Ed's head, sending the small alchemist to the floor. Ed tried to get up, but he found himself pinned down by someone familiar. Envy smirked as Ed struggled. "It's time to go home, pipsqueak."

-------------------

Ed continued to struggle as Envy pulled him through the town. After a while, Envy got sick of Ed and pushed him against a wall. "Don't you want to go back?" he asked in exasperation.

"Not until I find my brother," Ed replied, glaring at the homunculus.

"Well, where is he?" Envy asked.

"I don't know."

Envy sighed in aggravation and changed direction. It took Ed a moment to realize that Envy was heading for where Ed had been trapped that night.

"What are you doing?" he asked, trying to pull his arm away.

"I'm going to follow you to wherever these people are planning on taking you, and then I'm going to get you and your brother out of there."

Ed raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "That's a little out of character for you, isn't it?"

Envy sighed again. "Get over it. I was told to bring both of you back, so that's what I'll do, even if it means more work."

As they made their way to the small cluster of tents, Envy changed forms again. This time he looked like one of the guards in the tents. He took Ed on a roundabout route to the hole in the ground. Once he was sure nobody would see him, Envy pushed Ed into the hole. Ed landed with a thud on the hard stone floor. He didn't move until Indy came to his side.

"Hey, why are you back here?" he asked as he sat Ed down against the wall.

"I ran into someone from my world," Ed replied. "He forced me back here."

"Forced you? What do you mean by that?"

Ed sighed and began explaining the events surrounding his return, and the appearance of Envy. Once Ed finished, Indy stood up. "Well, I guess we'll just have to follow his lead."

"Eh?"

"If he's planning on bringing you and your brother back to your world, then I'm fine with that. You really shouldn't be here in the first place."

Ed sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. "I know, but I'd rather not have help from _him_. Besides, what'll happen to you?"

Indy shrugged. "We can worry about that later. Right now you should get some sleep. You look exhausted."

Ed nodded and closed his eyes. Within moments, he was in a deep sleep. Indy watched him for a moment before turning to the person standing at the entrance of the hole. The soldier smirked and looked with some seriousness at where Ed lay sleeping.

"I don't really like having to team up with a human, but make sure that kid doesn't die, got it? Otherwise the two of us will have some major issues to deal with."

Before Indy could ask what Envy meant, the shape shifter had disappeared. Indy sighed and sat down next to Ed. The teenager was curled up on the ground. His head lay on his hands. Indy pulled off Ed's coat and placed it under his head. He checked Ed's forehead before closing his eyes as well.

------------------

Ed stared at the hole in the ceiling, waiting for something to happen. Despite the situation they were in, he was bored. He yawned as he watched the guards change shifts. He had tried escaping again, despite Envy's warnings against it. Of course, he hadn't planned anything out, so he hadn't gotten very far. They had caught him and thrown him down again.

Ed stretched and walked away from the hole, into the other room. Once there, he looked over at Indy, who was paying very close attention to the wall on the right side of the door. Ed walked over and looked at the wall. There was nothing interesting about it.

"What are you doing?" Ed asked.

"I think there's another room on the other side of this wall. If we can get over there…"

"Wait, are you trying to get out? I thought you were against trying to escape."

"Think about it. They still think you're a girl. Do you think there's any chance of them bringing you to the same place as your brother? Even if you reveal your identity, they aren't likely to let you two see each other. You'll just have to find another way."

"And then have Envy chasing after me? Yeah, great idea."

Indy looked at Ed. "You know, he's right behind you."

Ed turned around, and sure enough, there was Envy. He scowled as he spoke. "Yeah, your friend's right. Staying here would be a bad idea."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Ed asked.

Envy looked back up at the hole. "It's too late to get out of here, but there's someplace else that's closer to where you want to go. I'll tell you where to go from there."

Ed glared at Envy for a while. He still didn't have any trust for the homunculus, but he couldn't think of an excuse for not listening to him. "Fine," he muttered finally.

Envy walked out of the room. "Then come on. They've decided to leave today."

Ed and Indy exchanged glances before following Envy out.

--------------

And the plot thickens…


	9. Chapter 9

Okay, just as a reminder, this fanfic is based on the manga, not the anime, so Envy kinda has to help Ed and Al because they're human sacrifices and all that jazz. If that confused you, then I apologize. And it also means there's no real reason that Ed and Al should have made it into this world, so because I'm lazy as hell, I'm just going with magic.

Because magic solves all your problems! Buy some magic now! D /randomfakead

And now for the thing every Ed fangirl wants: ED IN A BOX! It's almost as good as Eds on a Plane. Or maybe better.

---------------

Ed sat quietly next to Peterson as they drove to the town. His hands had been tied behind his back, but since Envy had been the one to do it, nobody knew about his arm. After a while, Peterson looked at Ed with surprise. "I thought you would have tried something by now. Did you really give up that easily?"

Ed glared at Peterson, but didn't speak. Peterson smirked. Ed sighed as he turned his head away from his captor.

"There's no need to be so quiet, you know. Or is the heat bothering you?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine," Ed lied.

"You know, if you hadn't continued to travel with Dr. Jones, we never would have found you again."

"So?"

"So you're hurting yourself by staying with him."

Ed shrugged. "That doesn't bother me."

"Oh, really? I thought you hated the idea of-"

"You're thinking of something different."

Peterson laughed. "I see. Now then, tell me. Are you really giving up so easily?"

Ed continued to look away. His chest was aching. Finally, they arrived in the town, and Peterson brought Ed to a fancy hotel room. Ed sat down on the bed Peterson indicated, his senses on high alert.

Peterson turned around and walked to the door. "Someone will be in here in a moment to check on your wounds. Don't try anything stupid. No matter where you try to go from here, you will be caught."

Ed watched as Peterson closed the door. He fell back on the bed, which wasn't a very good idea on his part. Ed cringed as he waited for the pain in his side to lessen. Then he realized something important. If someone came to check on his side, his female 'disguise' would be rendered useless, and his real identity would most likely be revealed.

Ed sat up as he heard the door open. Someone he didn't recognize walked straight up to him. "I'm here to check on your side. Take your shirt off."

Ed paused for a moment. He didn't quite know what to do. After a moment, the man got impatient and grabbed onto his arm. "Look, do you not want help? I'm a doctor, and you're injured."

"Yeah, but…"

"What, are you shy? Fine, if that's the case, then change in the bathroom."

"No, that's not it. I'm… well, I'm not really a girl."

The doctor looked at Ed with surprise. "Oh. They told me you were."

"Well, they're a little confused," Ed snapped.

The man looked at Ed for another moment before leaving the room. Ed stood nervously in the room for a minute or so before the door opened again. This time Peterson walked in with the doctor. Several other men were behind him. Peterson stepped right up to Ed and looked down at him.

"Well, you had us all fooled there. Now how about you let the doctor do his work so he can get on with his life?" When Ed didn't move, Peterson signaled to two of his men, who went on either side of Ed and gripped his arms. The one on the right looked very startled the minute he realized what he was holding on to. Peterson looked from the man to Ed, and signaled for the two to pull Ed's clothes off.

Ed struggled to get out of the men's grips, but they were strong, and Ed was still in pain. After a while, they managed to pull off Ed's shirt. Peterson smirked as he looked at the bandaged automail.

"So, this is where you were hiding. I was wondering about you."

Ed stopped struggling once he realized there was no point in it. His identity had been revealed.

--------------

Ed sat sullenly in the bathroom as the doctor worked on his side. Peterson was standing next to him, intently studying Ed's automail arm.

"This still amazes me. I have to say, boy, I'm impressed with how well you hid yourself. I'm amazed we didn't notice your arm earlier."

Ed glared at Peterson as the doctor began wrapping up Ed's chest. Peterson smirked as he continued. "And now I understand why you're so against the idea of being romantically involved with Dr. Jones. Well then, maybe you'll answer my question now."

"What question?"

"Why did you give up so easily? You haven't before."

"I want to see my brother," Ed replied as he stood up. "Where is he?"

"Calm down, you'll get to see him soon enough," Peterson said as he walked out of the bathroom. Ed followed with clenched fists.

"Yeah? And how exactly will I get to see him?"

"If you behave yourself, I may arrange for you to be able to see your brother without any interference from us pesky adults. Now, sit down."

Ed glared at Peterson, but he sat down on the bed nonetheless. Peterson smirked and sat down on a chair facing Ed. "You're being nice and obedient at the moment. Do you really miss your brother that much?"

Ed looked away from the man. "Yes, I do. I really miss him."

"Well, that's good to know. You'll get to see him soon. It's just a matter of bringing you to the right place."

Before Ed could question that statement, he felt something heavy hit his head. Ed fell back, gripping his head as someone pulled him all the way onto the bed. He felt someone pulling his arms away from his head, but he didn't have the strength to struggle. Peterson laughed as Ed's eyes closed.

"I guess it's a good thing the doctor's still here, isn't it?"

---------------

Peterson watched Ed for a while, waiting for night to come. As he sat in the room, Peterson heard someone enter. He turned around to see one of his men standing at the door.

"What is it?" Peterson asked in a bored voice.

"Dr. Jones has disappeared."

"What? How did he manage to escape?"

"I don't know, sir, but he's gone. Shall I send some men out to look for him?"

"No, no, that's not necessary. He's not important enough to be chased after all the time. Besides, we have a powerful weapon right here. If Dr. Jones cares at all about his young alchemist friend, he'll come back."

Peterson watched as Ed rolled over in his sleep before turning back to his worker. "We leave tomorrow at dawn. Make sure this boy has a nice, comfortable, _safe_ place to stay during the journey."

---------------

Ed woke up in a very cramped space. He tried to stretch, but he couldn't straighten his legs. Ed pushed against the ceiling of the space, trying to figure out where he was. To his surprise, the top of what Ed now realized was a box moved. Ed pushed it open and stood up.

He was in a small room full of other boxes. Ed crept out of his and decided to look inside the other boxes. Each one was full of what appeared to be ancient texts. After a while, Ed made his way to the door of the room. He pushed against it, but it didn't open. Ed could feel movement under his feet.

Ed heard footsteps and hurried back to his box. He sat inside and pulled the lid to its original position just as the door opened. Light poured into his little space through a small hole in the side.

Someone pulled the lid off the box and grabbed Ed by the shirt. Ed felt himself be pulled to a standing position. He looked into the face of the man who had grabbed him. It was a familiar face, one that Ed had run into just outside of Peterson's home a few weeks before. He smirked at Ed.

"I can't believe all that they forgot to do. Leaving the lid of that box open is one thing, but leaving you untied, in the presence of all these important books? I feel sorry for Peterson for having such incompetent men."

The man shoved Ed roughly into the box and pulled out a rope. Ed panicked and avoided the man's grip as he tried to get out of the box. Somehow, he managed to make it out of the room, and he ran for the door to the deck of what Ed now realized was a ship.

At the door stood two men in Nazi uniforms. They grabbed Ed as he tried to get away, and Ed could hear footsteps behind him. Ed continued to struggle as the big guy began the process of binding him, and soon Ed found himself in the box once more, only this time, the man was sitting on top of it. Ed sighed and resigned himself to the idea of being trapped.

After a while, Ed got really bored, so he decided to mess with the man a bit. "Hey," he said. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"That's too bad. I'm not letting you out."

"Suit yourself. You're the one who'll have to deal with the smell."

"It won't be as bad for me as it will for you."

"Actually, my nose has been really stuffed up for the past few days, so it _will_ be worse for you."

"But you'll be sitting in it."

"Which will end up in me getting some weird disease and dying, and how well do you think that would go over with your boss?"

"If you die, that would be just fine with me."

"Yeah, but you'd be in trouble."

It was quiet for a while. Then, Ed heard a groan, and the lid of the box moved up a bit. The man opened the lid and pulled Ed out. Instead of letting Ed walk on his own, though, the man carried him down the hall to the restroom. He untied Ed and stood just outside the door.

Once he was sure the man couldn't see or hear him, Ed transmuted something from the wall of the bathroom. Then he washed his face and walked out, straight into the man's chest. Ed allowed the man to tie him up and carry him back to his little box. Once inside, Ed reached for the object he had transmuted.

Ed was about to cut through the ropes when he heard the door open. He quickly stuck the small knife back into his pocket as the lid of the box was opened. Ed looked up to see Peterson staring at him. Peterson looked at Ed for a while before speaking.

"Bring him and his little home into my room. I want to keep a closer eye on him."

Ed groaned as the man carried him through the ship. The giant was putting an unnecessary amount of pressure on Ed's side, which was causing a fair amount of pain. Finally, the man set him down in his box and left. Ed noted that he had left the lid halfway off.

Peterson stood above Ed for a while before walking off. Ed leaned his head against the side of the box and closed his eyes. He was rather tired.

--------------

Ed spent much of the trip in a half-awake daze. After a while, he became aware of someone shaking him. Ed opened his eyes and looked up at whoever it was. It was Indy.

Indy grinned at Ed and tousled his hair. "Nice box," he said.

"Shut up. It's not my fault they have a weird sense of humor."

"I don't think that's the reason. I think it's more so they can get you around without arousing suspicion. All they need to do is put something over you and they can claim that this box is full of research texts or whatever. Nobody ever bothers to check the contents of these crates. So," Indy continued as he pulled out a knife. "The ship's about to land. This would be the best place for you to escape, since it's a very crowded dock. All you need to do is-" Indy stopped talking and disappeared from Ed's limited range of vision as Peterson came into the room.

Ed glared at Peterson as he began placing things in the box with Ed. After a moment, he seemed to realize something and called a couple of his men over. They moved Ed so that he was curled up on the bottom of the box and covered him with a blanket. Once he was sure nobody was looking at him, Ed pulled out the knife and began cutting at the ropes. He stopped once Peterson returned, several books in hand.

"Sorry about this, but we can't have anyone finding you, now can we?"

Ed glared at Peterson. "Why would anyone care?"

"Because we happen to be going into disputed territory. If the wrong people find you, it'll be trouble for both of us."

"Yeah, sure," Ed muttered. Peterson laughed at Ed before dropping the books at Ed's feet.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure to let you have room to breathe," Peterson said as the box continued to fill with random crap. Ed began cutting through the ropes again. Peterson noticed his movements and sighed. "You really should quit struggling. It's not helping you at all."

Ed glared at Peterson as he continued cutting the ropes. After another moment of this, he was free. Just at that moment, there was a knock on the door. Peterson pulled the lid over the box and opened the door. Ed used this opportunity to transmute the side of the box that was behind him. Luckily, they had pushed him against the wall of the crate, so Ed just needed to wait for his opportunity.

It came quickly. Just as the door closed, Ed heard Indy's voice calling his name. Ed pushed himself out of the box and replaced his space with something about his weight. He saw Indy waving at him from the window. Ed made his way over and followed Indy down the walkway. He paused when Indy began climbing down a rope on the side of the ship. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked nervously.

Indy looked up at Ed and sighed. "Look, this is the only way to get off the ship without being noticed. I'll make sure you don't drown, but you're going to have to hold your breath for a while."

Ed heard voices nearby and decided it would be a good idea to listen to Indy. The two quickly made their way off the ship and into the sea. Ed did his best to follow Indy, but after a bit, he really needed to breathe. They continued until they were just below a dock. Indy helped Ed reach the surface and waited as the young alchemist regained his breath.

"You ready to keep going?" he asked.

"No," Ed replied, clinging to the wooden post that was barely keeping his head above the water.

"Don't worry, it isn't much further."

As they got close to their destination, Ed felt himself being pulled back toward open waters. He struggled to continue going forward, but the strain was too much for him, and he slowly lost consciousness.

-------------

Indy sighed as he dropped Ed down on a small hotel bed. "Figures the tide would start going out right then," he muttered as he brushed the hair off of Ed's face. Envy was standing nearby.

"Maybe you should have thought of that beforehand," Envy said with a smirk. Indy glared at the homunculus and went into the bathroom. Envy leaned against the wall and examined his hand. "So you do realize that it'll be hard finding his brother, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but there's two things that'll work in our favor," Indy replied as he wrung out his shirt.

"And what would those be?" Envy asked with some interest.

"Well, for one, I found something interesting in Peterson's room. I didn't get a very good look at it, but I saw enough to get a general idea of where he's headed."

"And what's the other advantage we have?"

"That'll come in later, if he does end up getting caught again."

"I see. Did you tell him I would be here?"

"No, I didn't."

"Good, because I'm leaving. You'll probably see me later."

Indy pulled on a semi-dry shirt as he watched Envy walk out of the room. He was about to pull Ed's shoes off when Envy opened the door again. He looked slightly embarrassed and irritated. "So where is this general area you mentioned?"


	10. Chapter 10

Oh noes, Junodog updates! Gaspness.

----------------

_He saw a figure before him. He stared at it, trying to figure out who it was. He stepped closer, trying to get a better view. As he walked closer, he saw familiar light brown eyes. He stopped. The figure's eyes were narrowed._

"_Why do I have to be this way?"_

"_I-I'm sorry. I'm trying my best. I really am."_

"_Then why are you so far away? Please, I don't like being alone here. Please, brother, hurry up and come. I hate it here."_

"_I'm trying, but everything keeps going wrong. I'm sorry, Al, but this is the best I can do."_

Ed heard a voice in the distance. It sounded like Indy was muttering to himself. Ed propped himself up on his elbows and rubbed his eyes. Indy was combing his hair in the bathroom.

Ed fell back on the bed with a groan. He was still exhausted, and he didn't want to leave the warmth of the bed. Indy seemed to sense that the alchemist was awake and walked up to him.

"I'm beginning to see a pattern in these events," he said as he sat on the bed next to Ed's.

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"You use alchemy to get out of a tricky situation, then something goes wrong, and I have to get you out of there on my own. Plus you're usually unconscious when that happens."

"That's not what happened after that castle incident."

"Good point. So, we're heading out tomorrow. That Envy guy's going to meet us over there. Hopefully he'll have figured out where your brother is by then, and then all we'll need to do is get him out."

Ed hid under the blankets as Indy walked away. "Where are my clothes?" he asked as he stared at the windows. He could see the sky just above the low-hanging curtains.

"They're drying in the bathroom. I figured it wouldn't be too good to leave 'em on, especially since your side's still healing."

"Right."

Indy looked at Ed for a moment. "Hey, do you know you talk in your sleep?"

Ed looked at Indy in confusion. "Really? That's weird, I usually don't…"

"Maybe it only happens when you're recovering from nearly drowning, or maybe just when you've hurt yourself in some way."

"Eh?"

"Like after you got shot, you kept apologizing to someone named Nina. Who's she?"

Ed curled into a ball and hid his face. "It happened fairly recently, but Nina was a little girl whose life was destroyed by her father. Then she was killed by someone who later tried to kill me."

Indy was quiet for a while. "Then why would you be apologizing to her? If it was her father that did it…"

"I couldn't do anything for her. There was no way to undo the damage that had been done, and we didn't even have a way to prevent it."

Indy was quiet. "And you were just apologizing to your brother. Ed, it isn't your fault that this happened."

"But it's my fault that Al's like that in the first place."

Indy tousled Ed's hair again before turning off the light in the room. Ed was grateful for the darkness. It made it easier to hide his face.

---------------

After another period of time in which the two made it to Germany via travel-by-line, Ed sat cautiously by the window of a small hotel room. He was watching to see if any soldiers were around. Indy was sitting by the door, waiting for Envy to show up. Several hours passed in this fashion, and Ed stood up and stretched, still looking out the window.

"Are you sure this is where we're supposed to meet?"

"Yeah, I'm positive. We're also pretty early; he's supposed to get here in an hour or so."

Ed shot Indy a death glare as he continued looking out the window. "You could have mentioned that earlier," he muttered as some people walked by.

After a while, there was a knock on the door. This startled Ed, who stood up a little too quickly, tripped and fell on his back. Indy sighed and opened the door. It was Envy. He looked over at Ed for a moment and shook his head.

"You're pathetic," he said as he sat down. Ed stopped trying to get up for a while and threw a conveniently placed rock at Envy's head. Envy caught the rock and dropped it on the ground. "You should be thanking me. Not only did I find your brother, but I secured a way into the building where they're keeping him."

"Does it involve me being captured again?" Ed asked from the floor. He had somehow managed to get his legs tangled in the chair.

"No, it doesn't."

"You sure?" Ed asked as he began kicking at the chair.

"Will you shut up so I can tell you what you have to do?" Ed stopped kicking and listened to Envy. The plan seemed simple enough at first, but then Ed realized that there was something that Envy wasn't telling them. Before he could ask about it, though, Envy had left.

Indy sat next to Ed and continued Ed's job. After a while, he looked down at Ed. "Why are you still down there?"

"I'm stuck, why do you think I'm down here?"

There was a knock on the door. Indy got up and walked over. Ed pushed himself halfway up to a sitting position and looked over at the door.

"Are you going to open it?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's probably Envy again."

"For some reason, I doubt it."

Indy looked through the little hole in the door and stepped back. "You're right. It isn't him."

"Who is it, then?"

"Ed, don't say anything, and stay down. I'll handle this."

Ed nodded and put his head down as Indy opened the door. He heard rough voices, all in German, and then the door slammed. After a while, Ed became curious and picked his head up. The room was empty, except for one German soldier; who had his back turned to Ed. Ed looked at his feet. He carefully took them out of the chair and maneuvered so that he was underneath the bed.

The soldier walked around leaned over. Ed could tell he was checking under the other bed. Ed quickly pulled himself out and pushed the blanket down just as the man checked the area where Ed had just been.

As the man stood up, Ed pulled himself under the bed again. He breathed a sigh of relief as the soldier went into the bathroom. Ed looked over at the bathroom and decided to risk being seen. He quickly crawled from the shelter of one bed to the other, just as the man came out of the bathroom. He could hear him muttering in German.

Ed lay under the bed for about an hour. Then, just as he was about to make a break for the door, he felt something on his foot. He looked back and saw a hand. Attached to the hand was the soldier, and he grinned menacingly as he pulled Ed out from under the bed.

Ed kicked out at the man and tried to stand up. Of course, he had forgotten that he was still partially underneath the bed, and he hit his head against the wooden siding. Ed clutched his head for a moment before regaining his senses. He brought his hands together and placed one on the wood of the bed. The soldier pulled his hand away just as a block of wood went flying out of the side of the bed. It hit the soldier square in the chest, and Ed used this opportunity to run for the door.

He looked through the peephole and saw that there were several soldiers coming down the hall. Ed risked a glance at the man, who was still on the ground. He opened and closed the window fairly loudly, and dove to the floor just as the door opened.

Once again, Ed found himself lying under the bed for a good half hour. He watched carefully as the soldiers inspected the room one more time and left the room. Ed slowly crawled out from under the bed. As he stood up, Ed felt something cold on his back. He looked back to see someone standing behind him. He had a gun in his hand.

"You're rather good at hiding, aren't you? It's a good thing I stayed behind to wait. Now then, why don't you take a little trip with me?"

---------------

Ed stood quietly as Peterson paced around him. "So, we meet again. You're making life rather difficult for yourself, you know. If you had just stayed with me in the first place, you would have saved yourself a lot of grief. But, since you're here, I have good news."

"And what's that?" Ed asked with suspicion in his voice.

"Your brother. He's here as well, and since we can't put you to work quite yet, we'll be nice enough to let you stay with him."

"Wow, aren't you nice?" Ed asked sarcastically.

"Well, now, I thought you'd be happier. After all, I managed to convince these people to leave both of you alive, and now you'll even get to be reunited."

"Where's Indiana?" Ed asked.

"He's down there as well. I hope you realize, though, that just because we're doing this for you doesn't mean that we'll do anything else. You'll still be our prisoner, which means we aren't going to be taking any chances with you anymore." Peterson signaled to the two soldiers behind Ed, who each grabbed an arm and roughly pulled him through the building to a small prisonish area. They entered a cell and pushed Ed against a wall. Ed saw a suit of armor nearby.

Ed waited until the soldiers had left before turning to his brother. "Al?"

"Brother… you're here…" Al stood up and walked over to Ed, whose entire body had been immobilized. Ed looked at his brother with a weak smile.

"Yeah, I'm here. Al, are you oka- OW!" Al had just dealt Ed a heavy blow to the face. Ed stared open-mouthed at his brother. "What was that for?"

"Brother, why did you come? I could have easily gotten out on my own and found you, especially after Envy told me where you were."

"Oh, yeah? Then why didn't you?"

"Because by the time I was ready, someone came running down and said that they'd found you. For the fourth time."

"Wait, Envy told you where we were?"

"Yeah, he was here a couple of days ago. Why?"

"Well, when we met up with him yesterday, he made it sound like he was going to make us get you out. It didn't seem like he was expecting you to get out on your own."

"That's probably because he didn't think we'd end up coming here in the first place," Indy said from the next cell over. "Remember the plan? We were supposed to come later on."

"Yeah, but why would he tell us one thing when he's planning something different?"

"Probably because he didn't want to deal with you asking five billion questions on how he expected your brother to make it out on his own and why he dragged you all the way here if he wasn't planning on you actually doing anything to get your brother out," Indy said in an irritated voice.

"Oh," Ed said as he looked back at his brother. "So, what now?"

Al was about to respond when the door slammed open, and someone walked up to the brothers' cell. It was Envy.

"Hurry up and get out of there, pipsqueak. We need to get going."

Al was about to use alchemy on his brother's restraints, but he soon found he didn't need to. Ed had broken out of them himself, and by the time Al had figured that out, Ed had gotten to the other side of the cell and punched Envy through the bars. The homunculus flew back and hit the bars of Indy's cell. Everyone looked at Ed in surprise.

"Don't. Call. Me. Small."

Just then, they heard footsteps. Ed looked down the hall at the doorway. "Ah, shit," he muttered.

"Well? Are you going to get out of here or not?" Envy asked.

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute to think," Ed replied.

"There's no time for that! Just make a hole in the ground or something."

"Right," Ed muttered. He clapped his hands and placed them on the ground. Immediately, the four of them fell through the ground and into an immense cavern. Ed clapped his hands and remade the floor above them before looking around.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking at the space before them.

"Probably a tomb or something," Indy replied. "I doubt they knew about this, though, from the way things look down here."

"But then why is it light down here?" Ed asked, walking through the cavern. "It's like there's a fire lit down here…"

"The light's coming from over there," Al said as he pointed to what looked like a tunnel. "Should we go over and see what it is?"

"Might as well," Envy replied as he made his way to the tunnel. "I don't see any other option for getting out."

The four of them walked into the tunnel and followed it to its end. Ed gasped as he saw what was on the other side. The tunnel ended abruptly and opened into a gigantic cavern. The tunnel the four were in was near the ceiling, so they could see down into the huge space. In the middle of it was a gigantic alchemy array. Several smaller circles surrounded it, but Ed could tell the focus was on the one in the middle.

Envy wasn't surprised at all by the circle. "This is what they were going to have you do. They were using some old books to figure out a way to create an immortal army."

"But wait, that doesn't look right," Ed muttered.

"No, they're way off, but they're fine with that since they have you now."

Ed looked past the circles at a group of people sitting against the wall. None of them seemed to be older than Ed, and several of them looked much younger. They all look

"Come on. I know how to get out from here," Envy said. Ed looked over at him and looked back down at the group of kids.

"What are they planning to do with them?" Ed asked, pointing at the group.

"Something they can only do if they catch you again. Come on, let's go."

Ed sighed and followed Envy to another tunnel. "You'd better be right about this."

"Is that a threat, pipsqueak?" Envy replied as he dodged another attack on Ed's part. "Calm down. We need to be quiet."

"Too late," Indy muttered as he looked at the dozens of soldiers now surrounding them. This time, neither Ed nor Indy could see a way out. Ed decided to ask Envy for help, but the homunculus had disappeared. They were alone.

-----------------

"Al," Ed muttered as he held his hands in the air. "Do you know how many people are here?"

Al looked around. "You mean in this entire place, or just right here?"

"In this place."

"About a hundred and fifty. Why?"

"I'm not in the mood to stay here any longer. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this."

"What are you going to do?"

"You'll see." Before either Indy or Al could react, Ed had created several monstrous walls around them. He kicked out at one segment, and the resulting force caused all of them to topple over. Ed used the diversion to lead his brother and Indy over to one of the caves. This one seemed to lead to the surface, so they began walking down it.

After a while, Ed turned around. He waved for his companions to continue walking. "Go on ahead, I have an idea."

"Brother, what-"

"Al, trust me. I'll catch up with you, okay?"

Something told Indy that Ed was lying, but he didn't point this out. Right now they needed to get out of there. Ed could take care of himself.

They got away from the base and made their way to a small town nearby, where one of Indy's friends lived. He was startled to see the archaeologist at his door next to a suit of armor, but he didn't comment. He let them in and closed the curtains.

Al was unbearably quiet for a long time. After a while, Indy got tired of it and stood up. "Hey, I'm going to see if Ed made it out yet. You stay here, got it?"

"He's not going to come out," Al replied. "He's just going to stay there and hope that we get out of here."

Indy walked back over to Al. "Yeah, I know. And that's what we should do. You can't stay in this country."

"I know, but I don't want to leave him behind."

"You leave that to me. If they find you again and find out how Ed put you in that body, it'll be really bad for the rest of the world."

---------------

Ed stood with his back to the wall, surrounded by at least twenty-five soldiers, each armed with a gun. They approached him carefully, pointing their weapons at his chest. Evidently they weren't trying to kill him.

Ed slowly and gently brought his hands together behind his back and took another step back. He was right up against the wall now. He placed his hands against the wall, and there was a flash. A wall began to grow around Ed, and someone decided to fire his gun. He got Ed right in the shoulder, where the automail was attached. Ed dropped his hands in surprise, and the wall stopped forming.

"Damn…" he muttered as one of the soldiers made it into Ed's little enclosed space. Ed kicked out at the man and managed to bring him to the ground before he realized it was pointless. Maybe he would only have to deal with one at a time in this space, but there were a lot of them, and he knew he'd run out of energy before they did, especially with an injured shoulder. Ed brought his hands together and closed off the space. He looked at his shoulder. The bullet had gone straight through.

"Well, I guess it could be worse," Ed muttered, just as a small explosion went off, blowing off part of Ed's wall and sending debris flying in Ed's direction. Ed managed to dodge most of it, but a big piece caught him on the side of the head and knocked him back. By the time he got back on his feet, several soldiers had made their way into the space. They all had guns.

"Damn…" Ed muttered again as he brought his hands together again. "This is getting to be a pain." He placed them on the ground and sent up another wall around him. He wasn't quite ready to give up yet.

He sat there for a while, listening to the voices outside. As he caught his breath, Ed began wrapping his shoulder. Then there was one voice that caught his attention.

"So he's resisting, eh? I don't think we'll ever get this boy on our side. Go ahead and kill him. It's not worth the effort anymore."

Ed panicked. He didn't want to be killed, especially since he hadn't accomplished what he wanted to accomplish. He brought his hands together and placed them on the walls. They disintegrated, leaving Ed to face Peterson and the soldiers whose guns were now pointed at Ed's head.

"I give up," Ed muttered. "You win."

"There, see?" Peterson said. "I told you it would work. Disarm him and bring him to my office."

-----------------

When Peterson had said 'disarmed,' he hadn't expected his men to literally take away Ed's arm. He was rather surprised to see the alchemist come into the room with his right arm missing. One of the soldiers accompanying him handed the automail to Peterson.

"He was proving to be quite difficult, sir. He wouldn't let us search him at all."

Peterson looked at Ed once again. "Why didn't you?"

"You already did when I came here. I don't see why you need to a second time."

Peterson stood up and walked around his desk. He stopped in front of Ed and grabbed the alchemist by the shirt. "That's not a very good reason, you know? If you know what's good for you, you'll let these people search you. Right now."

Ed didn't move.

"Well?"

"Give my arm back."

"Why should I?"

"I won't be able to do anything for you if I don't have it."

Peterson laughed. "Yeah, I guess you have a point there. Well then, let's put the boy's arm back where it belongs, eh?"

The soldier took Ed's arm off of the desk and pulled off Ed's shirt. There was a knock on the door. Peterson took the arm from the soldier and gestured for him to open the door. He gave Ed his shirt back, and the young alchemist pulled it on as the door opened, and Charlotte Anderson came inside.

"Sorry I'm late, I… Why is this boy here?"

Peterson dropped the automail behind the desk and pushed Ed out of his way as he went to meet Charlotte. "Oh, he's been a very troublesome child lately. We'll probably end up punishing him before he gets to work."

"I see. What of Doctor Jones? Has he been captured yet?"

"No, he got away, along with this brat's younger brother."

"You realize that he holds the key to this entire mission, don't you?"

"Of course, darling. It's just a matter of bringing him back here."

"You had better retrieve him soon. I don't want to waste any more time. As for this boy," she continued as she placed a hand under his chin. "I think I know exactly what to do with him. Would you mind leaving him in my care?"

"Of course not. You can do what you wish with him, as long as he is still able to work once we capture Jones."

"Oh, he will be. I promise I won't go overboard." She grabbed Ed's arm and pulled him along, only stopping at the door. "Oh, and give me his other arm. He'll be needing it."


	11. Chapter 11

Charlotte roughly threw Ed onto a bed in her suite and took out a rope. As she tied his feet down, she looked straight at Ed. "Sorry about this, but I have to convince them that I'm on their side. Give me your hand."

Ed reluctantly held out his left arm, and she took it in her hands. "Oh, young child of Amestris, do not fear, for soon you and your brother will be in your own world."

"How do you know about Amestris?" Ed asked. "I never said anything about where I was from."

"I knew from the beginning. You can use alchemy here, but nobody else can. The only reason for that has to be that you're from Amestris. As for why nobody else can use alchemy, it's because they're missing a certain equation. You should know which one it is." She began tying a rope around his left hand. Once that was secure, she pulled out Ed's automail. "You can go ahead and scream if you have to. It might actually be better if you do."

Ed did scream, loud enough for someone to come into the room in a panic. "What's going on in here?" he asked, looking at the alchemist on the bed.

"Oh, nothing. Just taking care of some business," Charlotte replied.

The soldier looked back at Ed, who was trembling a lot. "Of course," he replied with a smug grin.

Ed lay back on the bed and refused to move. Charlotte placed a hand on his chest. "Breathe deeply now."

"Why?"

"Just do as I say, or I'll change my mind about being nice to you."

Ed did as Charlotte instructed.

"Good. Now close your eyes. Leave them closed for five minutes at the very least. It'll be fine if you fall asleep, just don't open your eyes. And continue breathing deeply."

Ed obeyed. As he continued to breathe, Ed felt Charlotte's hand leave his chest. He began counting the minutes in his head. Once five had passed, Ed slowly opened his eyes. He was in a field.

He sat up and looked around. Two people were lying on the ground nearby. One of these was his brother. Ed got to his feet and ran over to the armor. "Al! Are you okay?" he asked.

Al stood up. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?"

"I'm great. Where are we, though?"

Ed looked around. This place looked familiar, very familiar indeed. He looked behind him and saw a tree. The top was burnt. Ed walked around it to see what was behind it. What he saw confirmed his suspicions. They were in Resembool, at where their house had once stood.

"So, what's this?" Indy asked.

"This is where we grew up. Our house used to stand here," Ed replied. Then he started and turned around. Sure enough, there stood Indy, in all his manly manliness. The roles had been reversed. Indy was now in their world.

----------------

Ed groaned as he realized what this meant. Now that Indy was here, he'd be the one to have to find a way to get him back. He sighed and looked at the sky. He was trying to remember where they had been last before ending up in Indy's world.

Al was doing the same thing. Then they both remembered at once. They had been on their way to Dublith.

Al placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I guess we'll just have to get back there."

"Yeah, but how easy do you think that's going to be?"

"What, teacher didn't know we were going there."

"Yeah, but what if we run into Granny and she tells Winry we're in Resembool?"

Al paused. He pulled a map out from somewhere in his armor and set it out on the ground. "Look, we're here, right? And Dublith is over here, so maybe we can just cut across."

"What, you mean hike there?"

"Why not?"

"Are you kidding? Do you realize how long that would take? And how the heck did you manage to keep that with you all this time?"

"I hid it."

"Why would you hide a map?"

"I don't know. Why does it matter?"

Indy interrupted them before they could get into a fight. "So wait a minute, we're in your world now?"

"Yeah, that's right," Ed replied.

"How did that happen?"

Ed shrugged. "That crazy lady did something. Either way, I don't see how it matters. We're back now."

"Yeah, but what makes you think I want to be here?"

"I never thought that. And I don't have a clue of how to get you back to your world, so don't bother asking."

"Oh, great."

"Now you know how we felt," Ed said.

Indy was quiet for a moment. "So what exactly are you doing now?"

Ed shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to tell Winry we had a change in plans that led us to Resembool."

"Then what about the people at the train station?" Al asked.

"We'll just tell them we got here by a different route."

Al resignedly followed his brother down the path. Ed looked back at Indy. "Well, are you coming? For some reason, my conscience won't let me leave even someone like you stranded in a strange world."

Indy walked up to Ed and placed his fedora on Ed's head. "You just want someone to blame your bad hairstyle on, don't you?"

Ed pulled off the hat and looked at it for a moment before tossing it back to Indy. "On second thought, we'll just leave you here. You can explain everything on your own."

"Hey, I was kidding!"

----------------

As the walked down the road, Ed saw a familiar figure coming toward them. She stopped when they got close.

"Well, this is a surprise. What are you two doing here?"

"Hey, Granny. We're just passing through."

"Really? Who's your friend?"

Ed stepped back and let Indy introduce himself. Pinako took his hand with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Indiana. Well, why don't you come up to the house for lunch? Or did you already eat?"

"No, we haven't."

As they walked down the road to the Rockbell home, Indy gave Ed a questioning glance. Ed looked back and shrugged. He slowed down so that they were out of Pinako's hearing range. "She's the grandmother of a friend we've had since childhood. When our mom died, and after our friend's parents were killed, she's the one who raised us."

"So is your friend here too?"

"No, she's in Rush Valley."

Pinako turned around and looked at Ed. "How's your arm?"

Ed shrugged. "It's fine, I guess…"

Pinako raised an eyebrow. "I'll take a look at it when we get there, just in case."

"Sure…"

Indy gave Ed another strange look. Pinako noticed this and laughed. "I'm one of this idiot's mechanics, along with my granddaughter. We usually only see him when he needs a new arm or leg."

They arrived at the house, and Pinako began making lunch. Al went over to help her, leaving Ed and Indy alone in the living room. Indy began to look at the pictures on the wall.

"So is this you here?" he asked, pointing to a picture of Ed and Al from about five years ago.

"Yeah, that's me. That's Al next to me."

"Yeah, I figured. You haven't changed much, have you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed asked threateningly.

"I mean, you look younger here, but your face is about the same."

"Oh." Ed had thought that Indy was going to make a joke about his height, but apparently Indy had learned his lesson.

After lunch, Pinako began the task of checking Ed's arm and leg. Not surprisingly, she found something wrong with his arm, and decided to take it off to work on it. Ed sat outside with Al and Indy. It was a nice day out.

"So, this is where you grew up?" Indy asked casually, trying to break the silence.

"Yep. We spent a lot of time over here when we were kids. They've been like family to us."

"What exactly happened to your house?"

Ed looked up at the sky. "We had to make sure that we wouldn't try to turn back."

Luckily for Indy, he got what Ed was saying very quickly, and was able to shorten the time of the somewhat awkward moment that followed. "So where are you going after this?"

Ed shrugged. "Probably to our old teacher's house like we had planned before coming to your world. Although we may stop by East City first, to ask the Colonel if he has any clue about weird random world traveling or anything."

"The one you don't like?"

"Yep."

"Sounds like fun."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"You're being immature."

"So are you."

"No I'm not."

After a while, Ed drifted off to see if he could braid his hair yet. He hadn't tried since going to Venice. Luckily, it had gotten longer, but it was still about an inch and a half too short. He decided to leave it. If anyone asked, he could always place the blame where it belonged: on Indy.

----------------

When Ed woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that he was back in a desert. He looked around. Al was nowhere to be seen. He was alone.

"Damn it. This had better be a dream," Ed muttered as he stood up. He looked around. There were some tents nearby, but Ed wasn't in the mood to be captured again, so he decided to spy on the people there before actually noticed him.

It was the same place that Ed had been when Peterson had tricked them. He looked around for any sign of Peterson and saw a fairly obvious one. Peterson was standing above the hole that led to the building Ed had been trapped in. Ed looked around and decided to disguise himself. Then he realized that doing so would be a bad idea if he wanted to survive in the desert with his arm and leg.

"Damn it…" Ed muttered as he realized what he was going to have to do. He reached up to his hair and pulled it into a ponytail before walking a ways away from the camp. He sat down in a shaded area where he knew a patrol would see him. He could feel the heat creeping into his arm, but he couldn't do much about it. He'd just have to wait.

After a while, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Indy standing behind him. "Are you just waiting for them to find you?"

"Unless you have a better idea."

"No, not really, but I never thought you'd be the type of person to give up so easily."

"Who says I'm giving up? I figure since they don't have Al…"

"They'll be putting more effort into convincing you to work for them."

It took a minute for Ed to register this fact. "Oh, crap."

"So I think we should get out of here. We can figure something out in town."

"What, you mean we're going to walk through the desert?"

"No, even better."

Ed didn't quite trust the look on Indy's face. "What are you planning?"

Indy pulled a length of cloth out of his pocket and tied it around Ed's hair so that it held back all of Ed's hair, even his antenna. He looked at Ed for a moment before pulling the cloth out. "Nah, that won't work."

"Do you even have a plan?" Ed asked.

"Yeah. It's just not finished."

"How the hell did you manage to survive for this long?"

Indy abruptly pushed Ed back into a hidden overhang of rock and pushed his back against the stone. Ed watched silently as a group of soldiers passed by. They didn't notice either of the two until Ed shifted his arm, unintentionally reflecting the sun off of his arm into the soldiers' faces. Ed immediately hid his arm and ducked out of view, but it was too late. They had noticed him.

"Hey! You there!" one of them shouted. Indy groaned.

"Good job, Ed."

"Oh, shut up. It's not like you were doing much to help either."

"You two be quiet!" one of the soldiers shouted as they approached the two, guns ready to fire. Ed silently held his hands in the air as one of the soldiers began searching him.

As they were led to the camp, Ed felt the familiar dizziness that came with the intense heat of the area. He was intensely grateful for the chance to sit down in a somewhat cool tent, even if he was facing his enemy. Peterson smirked at the small alchemist and nodded to one of the soldiers. The soldier pulled Ed to his feet and took him to a car, where both of his hands were firmly secured. As he waited in the intense heat, he heard the sounds of a struggle coming from the tents. He looked over to see Indy sprinting for the car, a group of Nazis right behind him.

Indy managed to knock out the soldier who was guarding Ed and started the car in a rush. As Indy drove it down the road, Ed looked back to see a few motorcycles following them.

"Uh…"

"Yeah, I know. I'll lose 'em."

"Are you sure about th-" before Ed could finish his sentence, the car went over a bump and Ed fell to the floor of the car. "Hey!"

"Sorry. Couldn't avoid it," Indy said as he continued driving. Ed tried to sit up, but he gave up when he realized how difficult it would be. Instead, he simply lay on the floor of the car, waiting for the psychotic ride of doom to be over.

That moment came sooner than expected. Indy unexpectedly stopped the car, grabbed Ed from the floor, and began running. By this time, Ed had managed to get his arms free, and he ran alongside Indy as quickly as he could. Luckily, his arm was mostly hidden.

After a while, they ran into someone familiar. Sallah was intensely relieved to see the two alive and ushered them into a small side building. They waited there for a while before anyone dared to speak.

"Thanks. I'm glad you were in town."

"Not a problem. Hello, Edward."

"Hey."

As they waited for an opportunity to get out of the town, Indy began the process of wrapping Ed's arm. "It's not too bad, is it?"

Ed shook his head. "Not really."

"Good. As soon as we get out of here we're going east."

"Why east?"

"Because that's where I have to go next. So I guess you don't have a choice."

"Fine."

---------------

By the time anyone was willing to venture out into the streets, Ed had fallen asleep. Indy tried waking him up, but Ed was way too far gone. There was no way he'd be able to wake the kid without drawing attention to their hiding place. Indy sighed and picked Ed up off the ground, being careful not to touch his metal limbs.

They walked through the streets as quickly as they could. As they boarded a plane for the east, Indy pulled out a pen and began doodling on Ed's face, on his arm, anything to keep himself from being bored. Travel by line had gotten boring after a while.

When Ed woke up, Indy was asleep. Ed looked at all the doodles and decided to get revenge by doodling all over Indy and his precious fedora. By the end of the trip, the two walked out of the plane, both looking very aggravated and ridiculous. Needless to say, they got a lot of stares.

"That's the last time I give you access to anything that involves writing without watching what you use it for," Indy muttered as they walked through the town.

"You started it," Ed replied, looking around with interest at their surroundings. "Where are we?"

"India."

"And…"

Indy sighed. "Didn't my dad say anything to you about India?"

Ed thought about it for a while. "I don't remember…"

Indy looked at Ed in exasperation. "Were you even paying attention?" he asked.

Ed stared pointedly away from Indy. "Yes."

Indy put a hand on Ed's head and pushed down. "You're such an idiot."

Ed ducked out from underneath Indy's hand and walked slightly behind the archaeologist. "This coming from the person who spends all his time doodling on sleeping children."

"I thought you hated being called a child."

"I do, but that doesn't stop you, now does it?"

By this time, they had arrived at their destination, and a tall man stood in the doorway, his hat in his hands. "Doctor Jones, I presume."

Indy took the hand that the man held out. "Yes. Sorry for the delay. We… ran into some trouble on the way."

"I can see that," the man said, looking at the two. Ed turned slightly red as he remembered the doodles. He had been rather… extreme with the pen. He hoped greatly that Indy wouldn't see what Ed had written on his forehead.

"Well, you two must be tired from the journey. I have your rooms prepared. Please, come in." It was at that moment that Ed got a good look at the building they were standing in front of. He stared in awe at the gigantic building in front of them until Indy put a hand on his back and gently pushed him forward.

-----------------

Yeah… I thought about leaving Indy in Ed's world for a while, but then I realized that it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as them being in our world, so pretty much all it does is force Indy to believe that there is another world (in case he had any doubts) and to get them somewhere else action-wise. Plus it's more fun to just have Ed and Indy together because of all the things I can do to Ed… D


	12. Chapter 12

I'm not going to even bother coming up with an excuse on why this took so long…

--------------

Ed practically collapsed on the bed in the middle of the gigantic room. He closed his eyes and gave himself a moment to relax before sitting up and looking at the doorway. Indy had dropped off his things in his room and was now watching Ed with traces of amusement in his eyes.

"What's so funny?" Ed growled.

"Nothing. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Fine." Ed crossed his legs and watched as Indy walked over and sat at the edge of the bed.

"I know we haven't… had the best luck lately, but I think things are going to be fairly normal here. Just listen to my instructions and don't trust _anyone_, got it?"

"Fine, whatever," Ed replied. "You really should wash your face."

"I will in a minute, but I want to be sure you understand. There are people here who would probably kill you if you did something wrong, and I don't want to be responsible for your death."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Why would they do that?"

Indy paused. "Let's… just say that I don't have the best reputation with some of the people here. They'd probably drag you into any conflict I have with them."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Great…"

"Anyway, I'm going to wash this off now. You should probably clean up some before you fall asleep."

"I'm not going to fall asleep!" Ed snapped as he stood up and headed to the bathroom.

"Sure you aren't," Indy replied with a smirk as Ed slammed the door shut. He washed his face and arm, getting all the ink off his skin before drying himself off and collapsing on his bed. Then he heard a cry from the room across the hall.

"ED! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU WRITE THIS FOR?"

Ed quickly hid under the bed and hoped that Indy wouldn't think to look for him there. His hopes were dashed when Indy grabbed him and pulled him out. "I do _not_ eat shit for fun and money."

Ed smiled innocently. "What are you talking about?"

Indy stood up, pulling Ed to his feet as he did so. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, you little sneak."

"WHOAREYOUCALLINGSOSMALLTHAT-" Indy suddenly pushed Ed against the bedpost and covered Ed's mouth with his hand. Ed struggled to get away, but Indy put a finger to his own lips and looked at the door. Ed stopped struggling, and Indy pulled his hand away.

"You're really loud, you know that?" Indy said as Ed looked questioningly at him.

"What was that about?" Ed asked.

"Nothing."

Ed crossed his arms and glared at Indy. "Yeah, right."

"Ed, didn't I just tell you to follow my instructions?"

"Yeah, but you didn't tell me not to be skeptical."

"Yeah, well…" Indy trailed off, and Ed smirked. "Okay, fine. You want to know what's going on?"

"Yes."

"You need to learn how to behave. I don't want to have to apologize for you every five seconds, and I _really_ don't want you screaming all the time."

"I wasn't screaming."

"That's what it sounded like to me. Like I said, you need to be careful here. There's a good chance you'll get yourself into trouble if you act the way you usually do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed growled.

"I think you know exactly what I mean, Ed." With that, Indy turned and headed for the door.

"You're scared, aren't you?" Ed asked.

Indy stopped and turned back. "That's none of your business. You should be glad I'm letting you tag along."

-----------------

After an hour or so, Indy heard a knock on his door and got up to see who it was. It was one of the servants that had led Ed and Indy to their rooms, and he looked nervously at the floor as he gave Indy a message.

"Um… th-the master says supper will be i-in half an hour, and would like t-to know whether Mr. Elric would p-prefer to eat western-s-style food…"

Indy thought about for a minute. "I don't know, I'll ask him." He crossed over to Ed's room and entered without knocking, realizing that trying to wake him up would be a bad idea from out in the hallway. He shook Ed gently by the shoulder, but Ed simply grunted and pulled a pillow over his head.

Indy heard a muffled "Go 'way," and tried not to laugh. He pulled the pillow out of Ed's grasp and hit the alchemist on the head with it.

"Hey, it's time for you to get up."

Ed covered his head with his arms, his face buried in the pillow. "No it's not."

"Okay, fine. You can just sleep through dinner."

Ed sat up in a hurry. "Okay, I'm awake."

"Great. Now I have a question for you."

"What?"

"Do you think you can handle eating the food that people here usually eat, or are you as bad with foreign foods as you are with milk?"

Ed shook his head. "Whatever's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Spending a month on an uninhabited island makes you realize you can't be too picky."

Indy smirked. "And yet you still hate milk."

Ed grabbed the other pillow on his bed and threw it at Indy. "Shut up!"

--------------

Twenty minutes later, Ed trudged quietly down the stairs behind Indy to the dining room, where their host was waiting with a gracious smile. "Good evening, gentlemen. We're waiting for a very important visitor to arrive before eating, but you may go ahead and sit."

Ed sat down next to Indy and looked around. The room seemed rather extravagant, but then again, so was everything in this… palace. He decided that this would be a good time to play the silent observer, so he did, until Indy grabbed his arm in a gesture that meant "stand up, someone important is coming into the room." Ed watched as a boy, not much younger than Ed and wearing fairly extravagant clothing, came into the room and sat down at the head of the table. Then Indy pulled on Ed's sleeve, signaling for him to sit down again.

The evening was fairly quiet to start, and Ed found himself eating… interesting… foods. He was grateful that he had been given a warning, and even more grateful that he had been forced to eat snake meat before. The bugs, however, were a different story. He chose to ignore those.

After a while, the teenager, whom Indy had said was some sort of high-ranking guy with a weird title that Ed couldn't pronounce quite yet, turned his attention to Ed and Indy.

"Doctor Jones, it's a pleasure to see you after all these years. I do hope you have forgiven me for what happened the last time you were here."

Ed shot Indy a questioning glance, but Indy ignored it. "Not at all. I'm just grateful that you're all right now."

The teenager smiled and turned to face Ed. "I see you brought your daughter along. She is beautiful."

Ed opened his mouth to respond, but Indy beat him to it. "Yeah, I think she gets it from her mother," the archaeologist said with a weak laugh as he covered Ed's mouth and pulled him close in a very bad fake hug. Ed bit his hand and managed to sit in a fairly dignified position as Indy focused on the bite marks on his fingers.

"What is your name?" the maharaja asked Ed. Ed was about to respond with his name when he saw that at least two others at the table were giving him warning glares. Ed paused for a second before blurting out the first name he could think of.

"Winry. My name is Winry."

----------------

Ed was positively fuming as he and Indy made their way to their rooms after dinner. Once they were away from the others, except for the man who had first greeted them and seemed to be someone important, Indy turned to him.

"Didn't I tell you to be careful?"

Ed ignored him and continued walking. He wasn't going to deal with this tonight.

Indy caught up with him and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Hey! I was talking to you!"

"You're a jerk, you know that?"

"Ed, do you know what happens when you make someone that important look like an idiot?"

"No, I don't," Ed snapped. "But I don't really care."

"Well, you should, because to make a fool of the maharaja is not something you can do lightly," said the one important dude. "Dr. Jones saved your reputation, as well as the maharaja's. Be grateful."

Ed narrowed his eyes and was about to retort when the man spoke again. "I have informed the maharaja about his mistake, and he gives his apologies. He also wishes to thank you for not making him appear to be a fool in front of so many important people."

Ed calmed down a little at this, but as soon as he got into his room, he fell on the bed and covered his head with a pillow. He didn't move an inch when Indy came in and sat next to him.

"Stop being such a baby. It was just a mistake. Mistakes happen."

"Shut up."

Indy tried to pull the pillow away, but Ed just gripped it more firmly. "Why are you so sensitive about it, anyway?"

"I'm not a girl," Ed mumbled into the bed.

"Yeah, I know that one. What's the real problem here?"

"I hate this." Ed waited for a minute before speaking again. "I hate having to change who I am just because of those people. It's stupid."

"Those people? You mean Peterson?"

"Do you know how irritating it is to have half the guys you meet trying to hit on you?"

"Oh, come on, nobody's been hitting on you…"

"How would you know?"

"How would _you_?" Indy shot back. "Al told me you're too clueless to know anything about the whole concept of dating!"

"I'm not clueless!" Ed lowered his voice. "I just have more important things to do."

This last statement had the desired effect, and Indy quickly changed the subject after mumbling an apology that Ed barely heard. "So… other than that… how do you like it here so far?"

"It's weird. And too hot. And I miss Al."

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Indy asked.

"How should I know? He might still be at Granny's…"

"How's your shoulder?"

Ed blinked. He'd almost forgotten about the bullet wound in his shoulder (and so did I. XD). "It's fine."

"Let's see it."

Ed pulled his head out from under the pillow. "Why are you so caring all of a sudden?"

"Because you're injured."

Ed sat up. "That's happened a lot, and you never seemed to care much before."

"That's probably because you didn't forget about something like this before. I figured you'd be able to take care of yourself, but since you seem to have forgotten about your shoulder…"

"Oh, so you're a doctor now?"

"No, but I know enough. Let me see it."

"No."

"What, are you afraid of me?"

Ed glared at Indy before standing up and walking to the bathroom. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? I'd just rather take care of this myself."

"Think you can?"

Ed turned on his heels, intending to shout something along the lines of "What's that supposed to mean??" when he lost his balance and fell to the floor, landing on his injured shoulder. He grimaced, but didn't give Indy the satisfaction of saying he was in pain. Indy figured it out anyway.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Indy laughed as he pulled Ed to his feet and pushed him toward the bathroom. "Come on, let's see it."

Ed scowled as he pulled off his shirt and held his automail in the air so that Indy could unwrap the bandages. "You're acting like my mom. Except she never made fun of me when I got hurt."

"Maybe not to your face…" Indy muttered with a smirk.

"Shut up! You don't know anything about her!" Ed shouted with more anger than he'd intended on.

Indy frowned. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it." It was quiet for a minute as Indy began wrapping a clean bandage around the half-healed wound. "How did she die again?" Indy asked.

"She was sick," Ed muttered before wincing. "Ow, why are you pulling so hard?"

"I'm not pulling that hard, you're just too sensitive."

Once Indy had finished, Ed jerked his arm away and pulled his shirt back on. "And you're too nosey." He walked back to his bed and sat down, trying his best to ignore the archaeologist standing in the bathroom doorway.

"You know…" Indy began hesitantly. "I lost my mother the same way."

Ed lowered his gaze to the bed. "That's too bad."

"But," Indy continued. "I always had my dad, although that wasn't much…"

Ed looked at him. "What's that mean? He seems nice enough…"

Indy shrugged. "He was pretty obsessed with something, so he didn't ever pay much attention to me. We worked things out about a year ago, though."

Ed nodded before breaking out in a yawn. Indy walked to the door, about to leave when he suddenly stopped and turned back.

"Be careful, all right? And if you hear something suspicious… just tell me, no matter how ridiculous it seems."

Ed nodded. "Okay." And with that, Indy left, leaving Ed on his own for the night.

------------------

When Ed woke up the next morning and went over to Indy's room to see what the plan was for the day, he was surprised to see that Indy wasn't in his room. Ed looked around before going back to his room, where he found a note on the nightstand by his bed. He saw that it was from Indy and decided to get dressed before reading it.

When Ed opened the note, he was disappointed to see that Indy was going to be leaving him alone for the day. He sighed and fell back on the bed, failing to notice that he had forgotten to close the door.

After a minute, he heard a voice from the hallway. He sat up and looked at the doorway. Surprisingly, the person standing at the door was none other than the maharaja. Ed stood still for a minute, not knowing quite what to do until the teenage ruler gave a friendly laugh.

"You don't need to worry about being so formal. I'm only here to apologize."

"Apologize?" Ed asked, not quite understanding what the boy meant before coming to a sudden realization. "Oh! Yeah, it's no problem…"

"You seemed rather upset last night…"

Ed laughed nervously. "Heh… I always overreact… It's really nothing."

The boy smiled. "I am glad. So, Doctor Jones is out working already, correct?"

Ed nodded.

"Then would you wish to accompany me on a tour of the area? There is nothing else for me to do today."

Ed paused for a minute before realizing that he didn't have anything to do either. Besides, he knew how to defend himself if he got into trouble, and he didn't think that offending this person by declining his offer would be a good idea. After all, Indy _had_ told him to behave himself…

"That sounds great," Ed replied with a smile. The maharaja smiled in return, and they were soon wandering around the city.

-------------

That night, Indy returned to the palace and went immediately to Ed's room. Something he'd heard made him worry that something had happened to the alchemist, but when he opened the door, he found Ed sitting cross-legged on the bed, his eyes glued to a book.

"And here I was wondering if you liked anything remotely educational," Indy remarked as he walked up to the bed. Sadly, his statement didn't get the reaction he was hoping for, as it took Ed a minute to even realize he was there.

"Did you say something?" Ed asked when he finally looked up.

"…Forget it. So, did anything interesting happen today?"

"Not really," Ed replied. "I just wandered around with that one kid."

Indy frowned. The maharaja had been an unwilling enemy the last time Indy had met him, so he wasn't sure if he had any reason to go against him this time. That still didn't put him at ease, though, so he sat down next to Ed and looked down at the book he was reading.

"He's pretty nice," Ed continued. "And yes, I did behave myself. I'm not _that_ stupid."

Indy sighed. "That's not what I'm worried about."

Ed looked curiously up at him for a moment before going back to the book. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll get a message to you if someone tries to kill me."

"Ed, this isn't a joke," Indy growled.

"I know. I've dealt with corruption in the military, so I can usually tell when someone's planning something. I'm not going to let people take advantage of me."

The look in Ed's eyes was surprisingly determined, and the serious tone in Ed's voice was one he hadn't heard from the kid before. Indy smiled and ruffled Ed's hair. "In that case, you should probably start sleeping in my room for a while. That way if you sleep through someone trying to kill you, I can wake you up beforehand."

Ed snorted. "Yeah, like that would work. You'd probably sleep through it too."

"Hey, at least I don't snore!"

"I don't snore!" Ed snapped, shutting his book and glaring at Indy. "Why the hell are you still here, anyway?"

"Do you want me to leave?" Indy asked in mock surprise. "Jeez, I'm sorry I care."

Ed rolled his eyes and lay down, his back to Indy. "Talking to you is annoying."

"Fine, I'll just move into your room if you're going to be lazy," Indy said.

"No you won't," Ed growled. "I don't want anything getting suspicious about how you're acting."

"What… Hey, everyone knows you're a boy now! Nobody's going to assume–"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ed asked. "I meant it's a bad idea to act suspiciously if someone's planning something. It's better to play the fool in these situations, right?"

Indy blinked. Ed raised a very good point. "I see your point. Don't fall asleep just yet, they're bringing food up soon."

Ed grunted. "Whatever."

The rest of the night passed quietly, though Ed didn't look too good when he went to sleep. He collapsed on the bed, muttering something about the heat, before closing his eyes and eventually falling asleep. Indy let him be for tonight. It was rather hot out.

------------

The next few days passed quietly, though Indy still couldn't shake that feeling of unease he'd gotten from his first day on the job. He still checked up on Ed whenever he could, and Ed seemed to share in the idea that they needed to be careful. He still spent most of his free time with the maharaja, known on as Zalin Singh (that's the best I could find, so I'm going with that), but there was no real point in worrying about that.

What Indy was worried about was how withdrawn Ed was becoming. Their meals were now delivered up to their rooms, and after the first night, Ed always ate alone. Indy had also noticed that as time went by, Ed seemed to have less and less energy, and he became more irritable each day.

It was about a week after they arrived when trouble first reared its ugly head. Indy had just returned from another day out and about, and he was about to check up on Ed when he found two _really_ big men standing just outside the door to the kid's room. Of course, being as brilliant as he was, he decided to fight against them, but it was a very short-lived fight.

Ten minutes later, Indy found himself sitting in front of a desk in one of the nicer rooms in the palace, and he scowled as he looked at the man he was working for. "What's this all about?" he asked. "You could have just told me you wanted to talk, you know."

"I want to make sure you understand the situation you're in," the man replied, looking casually into a mirror on his desk. "I would very much appreciate it if you listened to what I have to say, though I doubt you'll like it."

"Go right ahead."

"Very well, then. I have something to request of you. You see, there is an artifact that I would like to obtain from a nearby village, but the occupants of that village seem to be against me going there. Now, I know you have some history with these people…"

"I'm not going to take anything from anyone," Indy interrupted.

"Of course you aren't. You're going to help me with a project of sorts."

"Oh no I'm not," Indy growled.

"Oh, no, I believe you are," the man said. "After all, you seem pretty fond of that boy. It would be a shame to see him succumb to poison."

"Poison?" Indy asked nervously.

"You've noticed it, haven't you? He becomes weaker with each passing day. In the end, he will lack the strength to breathe. Of course, if it had only been once, he would be fine, but he's a growing boy, no? He needs to eat, and because of that, he will need an antidote."

And that's when it hit him. Ed was acting withdrawn because he was losing energy. He was eating poisoned food, and he didn't have a clue. Indy wanted to kick himself for not suspecting something like that. "What do you want me to do?" he asked finally, doing his best not to kill someone.

"I need young men, about twenty of them. Preferably ones who have just come of age. They will act as sacrifices, but they must come here willingly, else it won't work."

"You want me to trick them," Indy said.

"Gradually, the poison in Edward's food will become less and less, but he will be exposed to it. The antidote will come in the end."

"And how do I know you're telling the truth?"

The man smiled. "I thought you might ask that. Very well, go and see for yourself. But I warn you, if you should mention this to him…"

Indy scowled. "I'm not going to tell him he's being poisoned."

"Very well. Go ahead."

Indy stood and walked purposefully out of the room. He arrived at Ed's room a few minutes later, and entered quietly, closing the door behind him and hoping to catch a few minutes alone with Ed before someone caught up.

Ed was sitting on the bed, reading the same book he'd been reading earlier, when Indy came in. The alchemist shut it and looked up when he noticed Indy, and he noticed that Ed's left hand was trembling as he put the book down.

"Ed… you feeling okay?" Indy asked, noting that Ed kept his hands in very tight fists.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ed replied. "Why?"

"Hold out your hand," Indy ordered. Ed complied, and sure enough, the shaking was noticeable.

"I haven't been eating much lately," Ed explained, letting his hand drop to his side. "Something tasted weird the first time we ate up here, and I felt sick that night, so… I stopped eating," he finished, looking at his hands like he was ashamed. "At first it was just to see if it really was the food, but then once I knew it was… I just didn't know how to bring it up. But I figured since most days I eat lunch out in town that that would probably be safe," he finally finished.

Indy stared at Ed for a moment before letting out an audible sigh of relief. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, Ed," he said. "They've been poisoning your food."

Ed scowled. "Let me guess, they're trying to use me as some kind of hostage," he said.

"Exactly."

"So are you going to play along with it for now?" Ed asked.

"I don't have much of a choice," Indy replied. "Obviously they can't directly threaten you without drawing suspicion to themselves, which is why you're still free to do what you want during the day. Whatever that guy has in mind, it's going to take some time to accomplish, so we can probably come up with a plan by then. But I can't do much in the area of food," Indy finished apologetically.

"It's fine," Ed said. "I can last for a while longer. I'm still getting plenty of food during the day."

"Good," Indy said. "Listen, I have to go back now. Just be careful not to be too suspicious when you get food at night."

"Yeah, I know. You didn't notice it at all, did you?" Ed asked.

"No, and I'm glad I didn't. I'll be back later."

As soon as he left the room, Indy found himself face-to-face with his employer. The man smirked at him and asked, "And?"

"I'll do it," Indy said.

"Very good. I'll talk to you about this in the morning."

As the man and his cronies walked down the hall, Indy couldn't help but feel angry. Those guys were going down.

-----------

Grawr, more evil people. It feels so good to finally have this going again…


	13. Chapter 13

April Fool's

April Fool's!

But the good news is that a new chapter will be out soon. And this time I actually mean it.


	14. Chapter 14

Okay, so how about that thing that has forced me to eventually change all chapter breaks to something that's supported by the s

Okay, so how about that thing that has forced me to eventually change all chapter breaks to something that's supported by the site? Great, huh?

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS.

Ed didn't wake up until late the next day. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, not noticing that he had an audience until he looked at the door. Indy's boss was standing there, and he approached with a friendly smile.

"Well, I heard from Dr. Jones that you've been feeling a little under the weather lately," he said. "Are you having troubles adjusting to the climate? It is rather hot here."

"I dunno," Ed replied. "My life's been pretty stressful lately; it's probably just catching up to me."

The man smiled. "It must be stressful working with Dr. Jones. How is that going for you?"

Ed shrugged. "Better than what I was doing before."

"Is that so? I would have guessed the opposite, judging from my past experiences with him," the man joked. "Where are you from again?"

"Nowhere, really," Ed replied. "It's been a while since I've had somewhere to call home."

"Ah, yes, but you at least know who you're descended from, I hope?"

Ed shrugged. "My parents never really talked about it."

"What a shame. I'm sure many people would like to know where you got your eyes."

Ed scowled. "From my father."

"Oh, so it runs in the family? That's even more peculiar," the man commented.

Ed rolled his eyes. "You know, most people who comment on my eyes are either old ladies or people who ultimately end up attacking me. Which are you?"

The man laughed. "I'm an old lady. Well, then, I should get to work. I'll see you around."

Ed watched quietly as the man left before getting up. His breakfast was standing on the table, and he closed the door tightly before taking it to the bathroom. The smell was driving him insane, and he just wanted to get rid of it before he did something stupid. Once he had disposed of it, he went back out to the main area and sat back down on the bed. He could feel his body getting weaker, but there was nothing he could do about it, unless…

He was quiet when he went into town with Zalin (it feels so good to use a real name…) that day. There was a lot he had to think about, and he was debating whether to bring the maharaja into this. It didn't seem like a bad idea, but he didn't want to risk putting someone else in danger. Besides, even if it was small, there was a chance that he was in on this as well.

"You're staring off into space again," Zalin remarked after a while, snapping Ed out of his reverie.

"Oh, sorry," Ed muttered. "I guess I'm just tired."

"You seem to be always tired, and more so with each day."

"It's probably the heat," Ed lied.

"Heat would not make you tremble like this. Are you sick?"

Ed felt a pang of guilt. He hated lying like this, but he knew how careful he had to be. "I'm not sure."

"If it's this bad, then you shouldn't have to join me. We can go back to the palace if you wish."

"No, it's fine," Ed replied. "I would have said something if this was too much for me."

"No, you wouldn't have," Zalin replied. "You would have stayed silent out of respect for me."

Ed made a weak attempt at a laugh. "No, I really would have said something. I never was one for respect."

"Then tell me," Zalin said, sitting down on a box. Ed noted that he had been taken into a deserted alley while they had talked. "I realize Dr. Jones's reputation has gotten him into trouble on more than one occasion. Have you been dragged into his affairs as well?"

Ed stared at the maharaja for a moment before sitting across from him. "Yes, but I'm not supposed to know about it."

"Have they done something to you to cause this?" Zalin asked, gesturing to Ed's left hand, which was trembling.

Ed began to nod, but then he paused. "Not exactly…"

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

"So that's the only reason you've agreed to come with me every day?" Zalin asked once Ed had finished explaining everything, half joking, half serious. "Because otherwise you would be poisoned or forced to starve to death?"

"That, and I like your company," Ed replied, giving the other teen a wry smile.

Zalin laughed. "I'm glad to hear it. We should return to the market, though. My escorts are bound to notice our disappearance soon."

Ed nodded, and they walked back to the market together, acting as though their previous conversation had never happened. The rest of the day was spent in silence, though this one was more or less comfortable.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Three days later, Indy stopped by Ed's room to check up on him, and to give him a very brief update on the situation. So far, he was still very confused on what he was supposed to do, but he was glad to see that Ed wasn't looking much worse. If anything, he was looking slightly better.

Ed was currently sitting quietly on his bed, leaning back against the wall. Indy walked up and looked out the window before turning to him. "How are you doing?"

"Fine. How's work?"

Indy sighed. "How do you think it is?"

Ed shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I'm not an archaeologist. Did you come up with anything?"

"No. Did you?"

"Maybe."

That perked Indy's interest. "Really? What is it?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"Ed–"

Ed cut him off with a warning glare and pointed at the door. Indy looked up, just as the door opened and Indy's 'boss' came in.

"Sorry for intruding, but I just thought I'd let you know we're having a special dinner tonight. It's the maharaja's final evening here."

"Huh? I thought he wasn't leaving until next week," Ed said curiously.

"There's been a change in plans," the man said. "His Excellency has decided to leave early. Didn't he mention it to you while you were out today?"

Ed shrugged. "He might have. I can't remember, though."

"Well, that's the plan. Dinner is at six."

Once he had left, Indy frowned and looked at Ed. "Looks like we'll need a change in plans, kid."

To his surprise, however, Ed didn't seem too worried. "Yeah. Guess so."

"Shouldn't you be a little bit more worried?" Indy asked.

"Should I be?" Ed asked in return. "I figured out the first part of their plan on my own, what makes you think I wasn't expecting this?"

Indy didn't reply to that. It seemed like Ed was doing better at this than he was. "Then what about tonight? Do you have a brilliant plan that you've already put into action?"

Ed shrugged. "Not really. The best I could come up with is not going at all."

"And how would you pull that one off?" Indy asked.

Ed scowled at him, pushed himself off the bed, and began walking around, only to fall halfway without bothering to push himself back up again. Indy walked around and looked down at the alchemist; Ed was pulling a pretty convincing fainting spell.

"Well, I guess that explains that," Indy said as he held out a hand to help Ed up. Ed took it and sat on the bed.

"Think it'll work?"

"I don't know, it might be hard to pull off without them getting suspicious," Indy said.

"Good point. What time is it?"

Indy checked a nearby clock. "Four. Maybe you should get some rest before tonight."

"Yeah, I think I will," Ed agreed.

"See you later," Indy said before leaving the room.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Once he was alone in the room, Ed flopped back on the bed and closed his eyes. It felt so good to just relax…

He was startled back into the waking world almost two hours later when Indy and his boss entered the room, both dressed in relatively formal clothing.

"Come on, Ed, time to go," Indy said.

Ed grunted in response and pushed himself to his feet. The sudden movement was almost too much for his legs to handle, but instead of toughing it out, Ed let himself fall. Of course, he wasn't expecting to hit his head on the way down.

To his relief, he was told to stay in his room for the evening, and after his head had been tended to, someone stopped by with a small meal. After Ed had disposed of it as usual, he received a visitor. He was relieved to see that it was Zalin.

"How did it go?" Ed asked.

"Pretty well," Zalin replied. "Even Dr. Jones thinks I'm leaving."

"You sure you want to do this?" Ed asked.

"Well, if I did return to Pankot early, I wouldn't have anything to do. Besides, Dr. Jones helped us a long time ago. I wish to return the favor."

Ed blinked. "He did?"

"Yes. It's a long story, but you should ask him sometime."

"Yeah, maybe," Ed muttered as he felt the bump on his head.

"Well, I should be going now. I'll stop by again tomorrow morning."

"Okay, see you," Ed said as Zalin left.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

It was about five days later that Indy faced the first major issue with the current situation. The plan was for him to go to a nearby village the next morning, but considering what he was supposed to do there, he wasn't so sure he wanted to go. And so, he spent most of the evening in Ed's room, trying to come up with a plan.

"We could just run away," Ed said for about the third time.

"And just leave him to do whatever he wants?" Indy asked for the third time. "No, we can't do that."

"Why not? Can't you just tell one of those important people you're friends with what he's doing and have him arrested?"

"It doesn't work like that, Ed," Indy said. "By the time anyone will be able to do anything, it'll be too late."

"Oh, so it's a matter of timing. In that case, just find some way to stall him."

"Look, if you're so smart, then why don't _you_ come up with something?" Indy snapped, having lost his patience with the alchemist.

"Yeah, sure, I'll have something by tonight," Ed said sarcastically. "Look, I don't really care what happens anymore. I just want to get the hell out of here and get on with my life."

Indy was about to retort when he saw the haunted look in Ed's eyes. It seemed to be exaggerated by the effects of his self-imposed starvation on his body, and any argument he'd had against this seemed to be rather stupid by now.

"Look, I'm going back to my room," Indy said finally. "I'll see you tomorrow before I leave."

And with that, he left the room.

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Once Ed was alone, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard to keep his plans from Indy, but come 4 am, assuming everything went well, they would be well on their way from this place. He just had to concentrate on what was to be done next.

He slept uneasily for a few hours before waking up, just in time to begin his plan. He made sure he had everything, opened the door to the hallway, checked to see if there was anyone around, and went into Indy's room.

"Hey," he said none too quietly as he shut the door behind him. Indy started, but it took a moment for him to be at all coherent. Finally, the archaeologist was able to sit up and ask Ed what the hell he was doing in his room.

"There's something happening outside that you should see."

That seemed to wake Indy up. "Outside? Where? What is it?"

"You'll see. It's out in front."

"Okay, let's go," Indy said, pulling on some clothes and placing his Fedora on his head. Ed followed him down the hall for a while before turning around and walking through the empty halls to a certain bedroom. He entered quietly, closed the door behind him, and walked straight to the bed.

"Wake up," he muttered, just loud enough to wake up Indy's boss. The man started and looked up in surprise at Ed.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Ed clapped his hands, placed them on the bed with an evil grin, and said, "I'm here for revenge."

The man let out a scream, which was quickly muffled by the blankets that Ed had deftly transmuted to create a cocoon. "Scream all you want. When they find my body, you will be taken where you belong."

And with that final threatening note, Ed ducked out of the room and ran down the hall, stopping when he got to the front door and ducking through it quietly, almost running into Indy in the process.

"What the hell kind of joke is this?" Indy asked moodily.

"No joke," Ed replied. "In two days… no, tomorrow afternoon, this place will be undergoing an investigation. I don't want to have to explain how I got a metal arm that works just like a real one."

Indy stared incredulously at Ed for a minute before shaking his head and walking down the front steps. "I suppose I should be grateful that I don't have to save your ass this time."

"Yeah, that and the only reason I didn't just leave after the first few days is that I don't have much of a choice when it comes to getting out of this country."

They met up with Zalin a few blocks down, and the maharaja ushered them into a carriage that took them to the airport. After a brief farewell, they boarded a small plane, on which Indy's things had already been placed.

"Damn, you really got this all set up, didn't you?" Indy commented as they took off.

"I figured you wouldn't mind leaving a few days early," Ed replied. "But I didn't really think about what would happen after we got out of there."

"I don't know, I was thinking about ditching you somewhere in east Asia," Indy said as he leaned back his seat. "But we might as well go back to America first."

Ed grunted and leaned against the wall, pulling his feet onto the seat as he did so. "I guess I'll just follow along like a little puppy again."

I HATE CHAPTER BREAKS!

Okay, short chapter this time, but whatever, I just wanted to finish this storyline and move onto a new one. Next one will be spectacular, I promise.

Also, I am not using the 'official' line break that Word automatically inserts. Why? Because the one time I did use it, it didn't work. I'll work on putting up chapter breaks in my other fics, but because there's so many of them, it's going to be a while. Probably a long while. I apologize if this causes any confusion while reading, but I really don't want to deal with all that.

So yeah, I bet you weren't expecting an update after that _brilliant_ April Fool's prank, eh? Well, I updated. So there ya go.


	15. Chapter 15

Oh for crying out loud I did not mean for it to be five months between updates I am so sorry I am a horrible person blame the m

Oh for crying out loud I did not mean for it to be five months between updates I am so sorry I am a horrible person blame the media here's the chapter don't kill me. If it makes up for it, though, I'm adding a new character who was sort of requested but not really… Anyways, you'll enjoy it, I'm sure. Hopefully it'll make up for the short chapter, too…

OMG WHO IS THIS NEW CHARACTER OMG

They arrived back in Indy's hometown three days later. All the schools were on some break, so once again, Ed found himself with nothing to do but sit around and watch Indy do stuff. He wasn't a huge fan of this, mostly because he would occasionally see some lady come walking up the steps, which was often followed by Indy giving him some cash and kicking him out of the house. He'd hang out with Jeff on occasion, but it was tiresome to walk all the way up to his house, and Ed never had time to call up for a ride beforehand, even though Jim had made it clear that he was welcome to anytime. And so, he usually ended up wandering around town.

He also went to the museum a bunch. There were a lot of interesting things there, and it was good to learn more about this world in which he was stuck, and that one guy that ran the place was pretty interesting, but it was still not what he wanted to be doing. At the very least, his hair was back to normal.

Life was boring until almost two weeks after arriving, when the two of them went out for drinks at a local diner. Ed was poking at his milkshake, partially because he was worried about his brother, and partially because he was curious as to whether Indy would make a remark about his dislike for milk.

"It doesn't taste like milk, you know," Indy said after a while.

Ed retaliated by stealing Indy's hat.

"I'm getting sick of this," he said after a while.

"Sick of what?"

Ed shot a dark glare in Indy's direction before taking a sip of strawberry goodness. "Why is it that I've gotten stuck in this world twice now?"

"I wouldn't know," Indy replied. "Maybe you should go find Charlotte again."

"She's too crazy," Ed muttered. "I'm just wondering whether this has happened to anyone else from my world. Or at least, to anyone who isn't related to me." As he said this, Ed turned a bit on his stool and looked out at the street.

"It could be, but– hey, what are you doing?"

Ed had slid off his stool and walked over to the window, but he returned and shook his head. "Nothing. I thought I saw someone I know, but I doubt it was hi–"

"Fullmetal?"

The surprise of hearing Mustang's voice made Ed fall off his stool, and he stared up in shock as he saw Roy standing just behind him. Indy seemed surprised, too, but he was staring at Ed instead of Mustang.

"What are you doing here?" Ed asked finally, shaking off his initial shock as he pulled himself off the ground.

"Probably the same thing you're doing," Roy replied, glancing at Indy as he spoke. "But this probably isn't the best time to talk about it."

Ed blinked. He had almost forgotten that they were in a public space, seeing as the diner was practically empty. "Right."

"Come on, we might as well go back to my place now," Indy said, paying for their drinks and leading the way outside. Ed followed, and Roy walked behind him, but Ed didn't think the older alchemist was nearly as concerned about the situation as he should have been. As they turned and walked down the street, Indy stopped and turned to Roy.

"You're from the same place he is, right? I'm Indiana Jones."

"Oh, I heard about you from a friend of mine," Roy said, shaking the archaeologist's hand. "You teach at the college, right?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Wait a minute," Ed interrupted. "Why are you acting like you live here?"

"Oh, right," Roy said, looking back at Ed. "This is actually a pretty common occurrence among alchemists. I've been here at least ten times, and never shorter than a week or two. There are some people in town who've made it their hobby to look out for alchemists and help them in exchange for learning about alchemy. I guess you didn't find them, though."

"Wait, so… can we get back?"

"Yeah, it's easy if you know how," Roy answered.

It was at that moment that Ed decided. He hadn't thought he would ever do this, but the current circumstances practically demanded it. He fell on his knees and thanked his commanding officer.

"You have no idea how much I want to get away from this place," he said as a solitary dramatic tear slid down his cheek. "This guy's insane!"

"Hey! I could have just ditched you in the desert," Indy snapped as Ed got back to his feet.

"Well, that would have been better than having people beat the crap out of me every week!" Ed retorted.

"Why, you ungrateful little–"

"I'm not little!"

"I hate to break it to you, but you are, Fullmetal," Roy interjected.

Ed scowled at him. "And you couldn't have warned me about this place? Do you know how miserable it's been here?"

"I didn't think you'd come here on your own," Roy confessed. "It's fairly common for an alchemist to be with someone else when they arrive here, and that other person has been here before."

"Well, I was just with Al," Ed said. "We got home once, but then I think he stayed home when I got dragged here with this idiot."

Roy looked up at Indy with sympathy. "I'm sorry you've had to deal with him for so long. He tends to be quite a handful."

Ed scowled. Any gratitude he'd felt at Roy appearing and talking about getting back had quickly vanished, and now he just thought about how much he couldn't stand either man.

Thankfully, Ed didn't have to endure too many insults before they turned and headed down the road. He walked a few feet behind as the adults talked, occasionally looking back at Ed as they did so. Each time it happened, Ed glared and shoved his hands further into his pockets. It was then that he realized something very important.

"My watch!"

Both men turned and looked at him. Ed felt rather embarrassed as he explained. "I have no idea where it is."

Roy frowned. "When was the last time you had it?"

"I dunno. Germany, maybe?"

"No, I could have sworn I saw it when we were in India," Indy disagreed. "What exactly have you been doing with it lately?"

"I hid it so that people wouldn't find it as easily," Ed explained. "And I didn't really think about it because of everything that was going on."

Roy groaned. "You're supposed to keep track of it, Fullmetal. Who do you think will believe you without it?"

"Are you calling me short?" Ed snapped.

"Yes, I'm calling you a little kid who couldn't _possibly_ be an accomplished alchemist at his young age," Roy retorted. "In case you didn't realize it, there are plenty of people who would think that about you."

"And I'm sure there are plenty of people who think you're a useless playboy!"

"At least I can stand up and be eye level with them!"

"I'm sure your height will come in handy when they dump water on your gloves!"

"Hey, shouldn't you check to see if it's hidden somewhere in your stuff first?" Indy asked, though Ed had the feeling that he'd asked that several times before Ed had heard it. Ed paused and looked up at him.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You'll probably have plenty of time to find it before we can go back," Roy said.

"What do you mean by that?" Ed asked.

"It's not like we can just go whenever we feel like it. There are only certain times when it can be done," Roy explained. "And it doesn't look like that time will come for another few weeks."

Ed didn't think his hopes could possibly be crushed this badly, but they were. Both he and Indy stared blankly at Roy for a moment, though if Ed hadn't been so utterly horrified at the idea of being stuck here for so long, he would have called Indy out on his obvious 'I'm stuck with this kid for HOW long?' attitude.

"Sorry, Fullmetal, but that's just how it goes. If it's any consolation to you, though, it seems that less time passes back home, so a few weeks will only be a few days at most."

"So wait, if we go home and come back again like a month or two later, a year will have passed here?" Ed asked.

"No. For some reason, time only seems to slow down in Amestris when we're in this world."

"That makes no sense at all!"

"No, but neither do half the things that have happened lately. Sometimes you just have to ignore these kinds of details, Fullmetal."

Ed groaned. A certain college student was going to pay dearly for this…

FOURTHWALLBREAKAGEFOURTHWALLBREAKAGEI'MTHECOLLEGESTUDENTLOL

The evening was eerily silent. There was nobody walking, driving, or skipping merrily outside, and none of the animals were making their usual noises. There was no apparent reason for this, but nobody within the Jones household noticed, because there was something much more important going on.

"It's not here," Ed muttered for about the fifth time. Of course, he wasn't too dumbfounded by that fact, but it seemed as if Roy was having a harder time accepting that fact.

"You just love to make my life difficult, don't you?" Roy groaned as he finally gave up and sat on Ed's bed.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because I lost it just to make you suffer. In fact, the only reason I'm still around here is to get revenge for all those times you blackmailed me into doing your dirty work."

"When we get back, I'm going to have you court-martialed," Roy growled.

"For what? Disobeying orders on a different planet?" Ed shot back.

"I have plenty I could use against you."

"Yeah? Like what?" Ed asked.

"The incident at the ford."

Ed snorted. "I could just counter that with the blackboard incident."

"The toothpaste incident."

"The quill incident."

"The dumbwaiter incident."

"The aquarium incident."

"Aqueduct incident."

"Tower incident."

"Radio incident."

"Magnet incident."

"Toaster."

"Goldfish."

"My bathroom."

"My suitcase."

"Black Hayate."

"Den."

"Havoc's cigarettes."

"Hawkeye's gun."

"My foot!"

"My butt!"

Of course, it was after Ed had screamed this while pointing at his rear end that Indy entered the room. And of course, he gave Ed his 'what the hell are you smoking' look.

"H-he set my butt on fire!" Ed spluttered, pointing at Roy.

"That was a complete accident!" Roy snapped.

Ed paused. "It was? Then what was with all the laughing I heard at the hospital?"

"What laughing?" Roy asked, looking concerned.

"Oh… Well, we didn't find it," Ed said, turning to Indy.

"Where do you think it is, then?" Indy asked.

Ed shrugged. "I could have lost it in Egypt."

"I hope not. I don't think going back there would be a good idea right now."

Ed sighed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to figure something out."

Just then the phone rang. Indy left the room to go answer it, and Ed collapsed on the bed.

"Oh well, I guess things could be worse," he said after a while, sitting up as he spoke.

Roy sighed and sat next to him. "I suppose you're right."

They sat there in silence for a while before Indy returned to the room, looking rather upset. "Guess who just called."

Ed and Roy exchanged glances, though Roy looked more confused than anything.

"Patterson?" Ed asked.

Indy nodded.

Ed groaned and fell back on the bed. "It's worse."

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Evidently Ed and Roy have had quite a few unpleasant experiences together. And is Ed going crazy if he's hearing laughter after his butt got scorched? THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW.

Now I'm going to bed, and I'll try to update one or two other stories this week. Hopefully one of the ones that hasn't been updated in a year. I may have to take a couple off and rewrite them, because it seems that might be the only way I'll actually update them. Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.


End file.
